The Wonder of You
by DreamWeaver619
Summary: Ever have one of those days where you wake up in a hotel room in Las Vegas and find yourself married to a person you barely knew? Such was the case for Jeff Hardy and Maria Kanellis. JeffxMaria
1. Viva Las Vegas

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

"What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas…Most of the Time…"

000

Jeff Hardy cracked open his eyes and immediately regretted doing so. The bright sun in the window glared in and made his head hurt even more. Squeezing his eyes shut, he rolled over with a groan. It was then that the strong scent of lavender and vanilla entered his nose. He opened his eyes again and blinked a couple of times before finally focusing on a head of beautiful brown hair. His eyes followed the strands to the smooth tanned skin of a shoulder sticking out from under the sheet, and then the lithe, hourglass figure outlined by white sheets.

From his tiredness and throbbing hangover it took Jeff a couple extra minutes to realize he was in bed with a woman and that he had no memory of the previous night. In other words not a good position to be in. He sat bolt upright, but was some what relieved that he was on top of the covers and his clothes were still intact. He looked down at the girl and was equally relieve to see the top of her dress under the covers and hair.

He reached down and gently nudged the girl. She mumbled incoherently and turned over to face his direction, although she did not appear to wake up. It was hard to tell since her eyes were hidden under a mess of hair. He carefully moved some of the hair aside and felt his heart jump into his throat when he realized who it was.

_Maria Kanellis…_

When Jeff nudged her again he noticed a glint of gold on his ring finger. Holding up his hand, he saw a pretty gold ring there. He felt a cold shiver run up and down his spine when he saw an identical ring on the same finger on Maria's hand.

The diva yawned and opened her eyes. "Hnn…?"

"Maria? Is that you?" Jeff asked nervously.

The brunette squinted at him sleepily. "Jeff?"

The young Hardy swallowed hard, suddenly feeling even more uncomfortable. Not knowing what else to say he just replied with the first thing that came to his mind. "Yeah...um...is this your room or mine?"

Maria sat up lazily, rubbing her head. She still looked half asleep. "I think it's yours…"

She yawned again and stretched, then suddenly her eyes went wide and her face went slack as the realization of Jeff being in the same room and in the same bed with her seemed to strike like lightning. "Jeff?!" She pulled the sheets up to cover herself, even though she was still fully dressed, blushing profusely.

"It's okay." Jeff held up a hand and spoke softly in an effort to calm her. "It's okay you still have your dress on."

Maria looked down sheepishly, peeking under the covers to see her dress and underwear still intact. "Oh, yeah…" She giggled, and then noticed the ring on her finger. "Jeff... if I didn't know any better, I'd say our rings were a matching set... like... ummm... the ones my parents have."

Jeff looks down at the ring a little panicked. "Now, now, let's not jump to conclusions…"

"Who said I was jumping to anything! I just merely pointed out that our rings match, like an old married couple's; that's all..." She smiled. "Maybe someone's playing a joke on us. We did party kinda hard last night... and we're both dressed..."

Jeff's tense body relaxed considerably at that notion. He hadn't thought of the prospect that this could all be a joke. "Yeah, maybe we were trying to help each other to our rooms, but we were both so plastered we just went to the nearest one."

Maria shrugged. "Yeah... I'm sure someone came in to make sure we were alright before leaving. So who were you supposed to room with last night? Maybe they're annoyed they had to sleep in the lobby, so they got the idea to trick us into thinking we got married."

"I was sharing a room with Matt, I wouldn't put it past him to pull a trick like this," Jeff laughed.

"Yeah... although I don't he'd mind sharing a room with Ashley..." Maria giggled. "You know we're sharing a room. I wonder if she put him up to it... she's been teasing me about you lately."

"Yeah? What's she saying about us?" Jeff was amused by that and he quirked an eyebrow at her, hoping she would tell him more.

Maria blushed again and shifted uncomfortably. "Stuff like how we make a cute couple... and because we've been like sisters since I joined the WWE, it's adorable how we're dating two of the cutest brothers... Sometimes she'll ask me when we became so serious, you know, stuff like that."

The young Hardy's brow furrowed in confusion. "She thinks we're dating? Doesn't she remember you're with CM Punk?"

"Well…CM Punk and I have been having some problems…It's a long story…" Maria looked down, a little bit of sadness edging into her voice.

"And this incident probably doesn't help anything," Jeff let out a heavy sigh as he got up from the bed.

Maria bit her bottom lip and began to knead the sheets bunched up in her hands. "He'll be so angry with me for drinking myself into a blackout last night. Jeff, you won't tell, will you?"

Jeff smiled. "Nah, What do you say we just pretend this never happened. at all?"

Maria nodded vigorously. "That's a deal!"

Jeff nodded back and started heading toward the bathroom, but he stopped when he noticed a piece of paper on the table.

"Everything okay, Jeff?" Maria quirked an eyebrow when she saw Jeff pick the paper up and his eyes went wide as his jaw dropped.

"What's wrong Jeff?" She got up and walked over to him. "What is it?"

It took a few seconds for Jeff to find his voice again, and even then it was shaky.

"It's…It's a marriage license…"

000

_Hehe! This story just popped into my head after watching a show on the history of Las Vegas on the history channel. Plus I've been wanting to write a JeffxMaria story. Just something fun to write up!_

_I hope you like it! Please Review and let me know what you think!_


	2. All Shook Up

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

_"Please don't ask me what's on my mind  
I'm a little mixed up, but I'm feelin' fine  
When I'm near that girl that I love best  
My heart beats so it scares me to death!"  
_- "All Shook Up", Elvis Presley

000

"What's wrong Jeff?" She got up and walked over to him.

It took a few seconds for Jeff to find his voice again, and even then it was shaky.

"It's…It's a marriage license…"

"What?!" Maria shouted in alarm. Calming down, she laughed nervously. "Oh I get it, this is a joke; you're just kidding me right…?"

Jeff merely handed her the paper, his expression still one of complete shock. Maria took it, her face growing pale as she read it. "We got married last night...? And who are these witnesses? Damon Striker? and Keith Orton...? Last thing I remember is hanging out with our friends. How'd we manage to run off without them knowing and stopping us?

"I don't know!" Jeff looked at her helplessly. "All I remember about last night, after walking into that club at Caesar's, and drinking one or two of those bong sized glasses, is this very vivid image of Elvis..."

"Elvis... Oh hell!" Maria's eyes went wide. "Jeff...The name of this chapel on the marriage license is the 'Elvis' Love Me Tender Wedding Chapel!'" She now looked completely panicked.

"Okay…" Jeff shook his head, trying to get over the shock, and think clearly. "Let's just calm down…"

The Hardy's words had little effect on the diva, "I'm trying to, but, Jeff, we got married in an alcohol induced blackout!"

"Come on, the only way to fix this is to get down to that place! If they can marry us they can annul us too!" Jeff scrambled to get his boots on."Let's do it before this gets out."

"You're telling me?" Maria had already slipped on her heels and grabbed her purse and stood waiting for Jeff. "Come on!! Quick, before someone tells Mr. McMahon!"

Maria opened the door and ran smack dab into Jeff's older brother Matt Hardy. After a dull "ooph!" Matt stepped back to catch Maria before she fell. "Maria, everything okay?"

"No! Jeff and I are married!" Maria blurted out before she could stop herself.

The elder Hardy looked from the diva to his little brother and back to the diva again. Then all of a sudden he burst out laughing. "That's a pretty good one, you guys! A good Vegas joke!"

Jeff swallowed hard as he walked over to his brother and held up the marriage certificate. "It's the real thing Matt. Look there's me and Maria's signatures, and the third witness is Ken Kennedy!"

"Holy shit…" Matt said slowly and sat in a chair by the door. He kept looking from the paper to Jeff and back again, as if waiting for Jeff to start laughing and start making fun of Matt's shocked expression. However, no laughter came. His little brother was really married. "Damn…or should I say congrats?"

Jeff and Maria looked at each other and then back at Matt. "Damn…" they said together.

Maria looked like she was about to burst into tears "You've got to help us, Matt! Please don't say anything until Jeff and I can get an annulment! I don't want CM Punk to find out!"

"Don't worry my lips are sealed," Matt assured her.

"Aww, you two are married? How cute!" Melina Perez stood in the doorway. Unfortunately when Matt entered the room he had neglected to close the door behind him.

"Melina! What are you doing here?!" Jeff snarled, Melina and her boyfriend Johnny Nitro had been a thorn in his side for a long time and he didn't need this to add to his list of reasons to hate them.

"Just getting some breakfast…" the former women's champion said idly as she twiddled her hair. "Until I heard this! I can't wait to spread the word that you two tied the knot!

"Melina! You keep you mouth shut!" Maria snapped, looking both angry and panicked.

"My, my, aren't we a bit touchy…" Melina sneered.

"Don't make us tie you up and throw you in the broom closet," Matt growled.

"You lay a finger on me and I'll sue your ass! Don't forget what I did to Batista!" Melina warned.

The Hardys and Maria stood down, the memory of how Melina, with the help of Mark Henry, nearly ended "The Animal's" career, making them give up.

"And it's a bit too late..." Melina smirked holding up her cell phone. "I sent a text message to Nitro and he's most likely spreading the news already"

In a moment of sheer panic, Maria ran up and tried to grab the other diva's cell phone. "Nooooo!! It's not like that at all! It's just a prank Matt and Ashley played on us, right, Matt?"

Melina pulled the cell phone out of Maria's reach and pushed the younger diva away with her foot. "Ah the lies, one tells when backed into a corner. You don't want to be known as a liar, now do you, Matt?"

Matt looked a little panicked himself between helping his brother get out of this mess and keeping his reputation as an honest guy. "No…"

Melina quirked an eyebrow. "So was this just a prank by you and Ashley, and if it was, why would Kennedy be involved?"

Matt shrugged trying to sound as convincing as possible. "He happened to be there and was drunk enough to go along with it..."

Melina grinned like a feral cat about to pounce on a mouse. "That's interesting, because as I remember it, last night, Matt, you ran into Batista and knocked yourself out on the floor. I know this because I watched it happen and I watched Batista and Cena drag you out of the club. And this morning Ashley was complaining about having to stay in Candice's room for the night because she had left her key in the room with Matt and according to her, Matt, you were completely zonked so you couldn't let her in.

Matt laughed nervously then sighed in defeat and looked apologetically at Maria and Jeff saying a silent, "Sorry, I tried…"

Melina giggled in triumph. "I hope you enjoyed you wedding night, Maria!" She skipped off to tell everyone the exciting news.

Maria sat on the floor where she fell in shock. Her mouth moving, but no sound came out.

"This is not good..." Jeff groaned, kneading his temples. "I can't believe this is happening…"

"Come on, let's go down to the chapel and ask them about an annulment," Matt tried to be encouraging.

At that, Maria quickly came to her senses and jumped to her feet. "Let's go!" She grabbed Jeff's wrist and dashed out the door dragging Jeff behind her….

000

_Well it seems Jeff and Maria have an idea to fix their little predicament… Will they get annulment? Or is there an extra surprise waiting for them…_


	3. Stuck on You

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

000

"_You can shake an apple off an apple tree  
Shake-a, shake- sugar,  
But you'll never shake me  
Uh-uh-uh  
No-sir-ee, uh, uh  
I'm gonna stick like glue,  
Stick because I'm  
Stuck on you"_

-Elvis Presley, "Stuck on You."

000

Maria and Jeff ran down the hallways at breakneck speed. Caesar's Palace, where they were staying, was one of the biggest, most sprawling hotels in Las Vegas, so it took awhile to get from their room to the elevator. Unfortunately, when rounding the last corner, Maria ran headlong into Mr. Kennedy. Luckily, Jeff was right behind her to catch her.

"Watch where you're going…" Kennedy snapped groggily. It was obvious the Green Bay wrestler was suffering a hangover as well, considering he was wearing sunglasses inside, and holding his stomach.

"Uh, sorry…" Maria said after Jeff helped her back on to her feet.

"Kennedy... Just the man we wanted to see." Jeff said holding up the marriage license. "What's the meaning of this?"

Kennedy groaned and looked at the piece of paper not bothering to take his sunglasses off. "A marriage license. What of it?" He shrugged but then noticed the wedding rings on Jeff and Maria's hands. "Oh…Congratulations…"

Kennedy was about to continue on his way, but Jeff and Matt stopped him.

"Hahaha... Very funny!" Jeff growled. "You know damned well, we didn't get married."

"Then why are you showing me the license?" Kennedy growled back, clearly getting more annoyed they were not allowing him back to his room, where he could sleep off his hangover.

"I'm showing it to you because I want to know why your name is on it as a witness!" Jeff snapped.

If Kennedy's sunglasses were off he would have given them a look like they had three heads. "What!?"

"Look, you moron!" Jeff pointed to where Kennedy had signed his name. "Why'd you do that? I can understand if you have a problem with me, but involving an innocent lady is just plain asking for it!" The younger Hardy gave Kennedy a look that said, "He would like to rip the Green Bay wrestler's head off, and hand it right back to him so he can rip it off again."

Kennedy finally lifted his glasses up and squinted at the paper. His eyes went wide for a second and he grabbed the paper out of Jeff's hand, looking just as bewildered as Jeff and Maria when they first saw it. He looked up as if he were trying to remember what had happened, before looking back at Maria and Jeff. "That was you guys?!"

Maria held up a hand to stop Jeff from strangling him. "What do you mean by 'That was you guys?'" She asked; afraid of the answer.

"I barely remember a thing," Kennedy groaned, putting the sunglasses back over his eyes. "I was so plastered last night."

It was now Maria's turn to snap. "That still doesn't explain why you'd do something like that to us!"

"I didn't know it was you," Kennedy insisted. "I was heading back to my room probably knee deep in either Jack Daniel's or Absolute, when a couple guys show up and drag me into this room saying they need a third pair of eyes."

"And…?" Jeff prompted with a growl.

Kennedy closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I swear I don't know; it's kind of a blur. There were a couple more people, some music, and think there was Elvis,"

Maria sighed, seeing they weren't getting anywhere. "Come on let's just get down to the chapel and see if we can get an annulment."

"You come to." Jeff pointed at Kennedy. "We may need one of the witnesses present."

"But I've got a hangover the size of Texas; do you honestly think I wanna go out there in the heat and the bright sun? Hell no!" Kennedy started to storm off.

Matt stopped him. "Come on, Ken, please! We'll owe you big time."

Kennedy groaned again and pinched the bridge of his nose. "All right, all right. Buy me one of those huge drinks served in one of those giant bong glasses and we'll call it even."

"You got it!" Jeff and Maria readily agreed.

000

About thirty minutes later, the group of four finally traversed the great expanse that was Caesar's Palace to the main lobby, bought Kennedy his drink, and hailed a cab.

A van-sized cab pulled up and they piled inside. Kennedy was sitting in back, satisfied with just sipping his drink through the straw. Maria sat in the middle seat, resting her head on her knees, trying to get over the motion sickness that her hangover was causing, while the two Hardy's sat in the front row. Jeff was staring pensively out the window, and Matt every once in awhile patted his shoulder.

They pulled up to a small chapel that just screamed "Vegas style and Elvis" and it made both Jeff and Maria's stomach's turn over in disgust. However, they soon discovered that that was the least of their worries. When they all got out of the cab they noticed none other than their boss, Vince McMahon, standing in the front entrance.

"Ah the newlyweds," the chairman greeted them.

Uh...Sir...This is all a big misunderstanding," Mari said quickly and shakily.

McMahon suddenly turned serious. "Oh, I'm sure it's a very large one. They would have to be for you to do something like this, but it is Vegas so I shouldn't have expected any less. Though I didn't expect it would be you two."

"We didn't expect it either…" Jeff murmured, but then took a deep breath and turned serious himself. "Going to get it fixed right away, sir; we're going to get an annulment before this gets out of hand."

"Oh no you're not!" the chairman snapped.

"What?!"

Both Jeff and Maria stared at him as if he had just slapped them across the face, Matt's jaw nearly dropped to the ground, and even Kennedy's eyebrows shot up above his sunglasses.

"Look," Vince softened his voice down to a more business like tone. "Right now the WWE is under extreme scrutiny since the whole Benoit situation. If the media found out you two had a drunken marriage and then a divorce less than six hours later, they would jump on this like rabid dogs. I will NOT suffer that kind of negative publicity, because of your stupid mistake! So if you want to keep your jobs, then you are going to stay married and you're gonna like it!"

Jeff and Maria just gulped and nodded, still too in shock to respond.

"Look, just keep it up for a year, and then you can do whatever you want," McMahon offered them some comfort. "After a year if you divorce then, it looks like just some other short term, celebrity wedding and it doesn't have to do with the WWE."

"A whole year?" Maria squeaked in disbelief.

The chairman held up his hands to signal it was a done deal. "Look I'm not the one who got married last night; I have my hands tied with keeping up the damaged reputation of the company.

"Oh and on RAW tonight, you two are going to make your first appearance as a married couple and you're going to like it, understand?" McMahon started listing off his terms. "In addition to that, you will be acting like a married couple, sharing the same room, making appearances together, the whole shebang."

Speechless, Jeff and Maria just nodded.

The chairman nodded back. "All right then, all of you get in the limo. I've already made the necessary room arrangements." He handed Jeff and Maria their new key cards, before heading over to the limo

Still in their shocked stupor, Jeff and Maria automatically followed Vince to his limo, with Matt and Kennedy getting in behind them.

Matt put an arm around Jeff's shoulders. "Well at least you didn't get accidently get married to Melina…"

"Not now, Matt…" Jeff groaned as he got into the limo. He knew his brother was trying to help, but he wasn't doing a good job.

Maria sat across from Jeff, once again resting her head on her knees. Only this time it was not out of motion sickness, but to hide the fact that she was about cry. She and her former boyfriend were thinking about getting back together, but now that this fiasco happened, that was impossible. Jeff was a nice person, but she didn't love him in that way, not like she did CM Punk.

Honestly, the only one that seemed to be happy at this point was Mr. Kennedy with his drink in the back, although he was almost finished with it….

000

_Oh dear... It appears poor Jeff and Maria are stuck together. Wait till CM Punk finds out..._

_NOTE: I reread rules and it states I cannot reply to reviews in the chapter. So I promise I will it reply to reviews sent to me by email or through the reply system they have setup._


	4. Heartbreak Hotel

_**Disclaimer:**__ All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended_

000

"_Well, since my baby left me,  
I found a new place to dwell.  
It's down at the end of lonely street  
at Heartbreak Hotel."_

-Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel"

_000_

"Oh, hold hands for God's sake," Vince snapped when they got back to the hotel and got out of the limo. McMahon wanted to say a few things first before they went inside the hotel. "You're newlyweds, at least pretend to be happy. I do it all the time, it's not that hard."

Jeff and Maria sighed wearily, but managed to plaster smiles on their faces and took each other's hands. McMahon rolled his eyes and sighed himself. "I suppose it's good enough for now, but start practicing your lovey-dovey looks for RAW next week and they'd better be good!"

The couple nodded, and without another word the Chairman stalked off to find his assistant Johnathan Coachman to discuss the storyline.

Once Vince was out of sight, Jeff and Maria both breathed a sigh of weariness and let go of each other's hands and remained in an uncomfortable silence until a loud slurp behind them made them jump. They turned around to see Kennedy had come to the end of his drink.

"Sorry," Kennedy looked at them apologetically, although his sunglasses covered his expression. "You guys look like you could use a drink more than me. The Pussy Cat Lounge is over there. I'll buy."

"No thanks," Maria groaned. "I'm just going to find the room and go to sleep and hope that when I wake up this will all have been just a dream."

"Me too," Jeff closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Kennedy nodded and looked over at Matt. "Matt?"

Matt looked at Kennedy then back at Jeff. "Want me to hang around?"

Jeff shook his head. "Nah, I just wanna at least sleep off this hangover. I can deal with the situation better if I don't have a headache."

Matt nodded and patted Jeff on the shoulder, before following Kennedy into the lounge. Jeff watched his brother go, and turning back to Maria, he asked helplessly, "Well, shall we go and see what our room looks like?"

Maria nodded. They headed into the hotel and began looking for the elevator. The two of them hoped they would not meet up with anyone they knew before they had time to get to their rooms and sleep on the situation for a little bit. Unfortunately, luck was not on their side as they ran right into CM Punk near the elevators.

Punk looked at them with an expression that looked both angry and depressed all at the same time. He slowly trudged over them."I hope you two will be very happy together…"

"Phil! Please! I don't know what Melina's told you, it's not what it looks like!" Maria pleaded.

Jeff nodded, trying to back her up. "That's right, CM, besides that little piece of paper, Maria's been faithful to you."

"I know she has…" CM said mournfully. "I know she's been technically faithful to me. But I can't be with a girl who would get so drunk off her ass, that she'd go marry some guy."

This answer caught both Jeff and Maria by surprise. Punk was not mad about the marriage, he was angry over Maria's drinking, particularly drinking to the point where you do something foolish. This went against everything a follower of the Straight Edge lifestyle like CM, believed in.

"I didn't mean to...please..." Maria stuttered, looking very lost. "You have to understand…"

"I'm sorry, Maria," Punk turned away from her. "I think it just wasn't meant to be. Our beliefs would clash too much. I think you married the right guy, one who parties and takes mind altering things just as much as you do!"

"Hey! That's hitting below the belt, Punk!" Jeff snapped in Maria's defense. "She still loves you!"

"If she did, then she would have respected me and my wishes and wouldn't have drunk herself into a blackout!" Punk snapped.

"I'm truly sorry, Phil!" Maria said in horror. She looked ready to burst into tears.

"You're taking this a bit too far, Punk, you know that?" Jeff snapped back. "You're acting as if she slept with me behind your back, which she did not!"

"But she broke the bond of trust that I had with her nonetheless!" Punk shouted. "She promised she would try to go Straight Edge with me. Because she was new to it, I said it was all right to have one or two cocktails. She promised that and I trusted her to hold to it by herself, not drink herself silly enough to marry you!"

Jeff bristled with anger; not only was Punk being extremely harsh to Maria, but he also implied that he, Jeff, was not good enough for her.

"Please, Phil…" Maria was close to begging. "We can work this out."

CM's expression softened slightly and his anger was replaced more by sadness and distress than anger. "I don't know…" He backed away from then slowly, looking down at the floor. "I have to think about this…" Pushing past them, he walked briskly away, before turning a corner, and disappearing into the lobby crowd.

Maria watched him go until he was out of sight, before burying her face in her hands and sobbing. Jeff, feeling guilty that he had been a part of this whole mess, gently placed his hands on her shoulders. "Maria, I'm sorry…"

"Don't touch me!" Maria screamed as she jerked roughly away from him. All of the pitifulness that had been in her voice before had been replaced by frustration and anger. She made toward the nearest elevator and started punching the up button furiously. Fortunately, the elevator opened in a timely manner and she stormed into it.

Jeff stared in shock for a minute at how quickly Maria's anger had been turned on him, but quickly got over it. After the doors of Maria's elevator closed, he kicked a nearby potted plant, venting his own frustrations. No doubt if he had followed Maria up to the room it would have just started a big fight, which he was too tired and wound up to deal with it right now. He decided instead to see if he could track down the lounge Matt and Kennedy had gone to and hang out with them until Maria calmed down.

000

_Poor CM looks like Melina got to his ears and told him the "good" news...and what of Maria and Jeff? Find out all of this and more if you keep reading and reviewing!_


	5. When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again

_**Disclaimer:**__ All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

000

"_When my blue moon turns to gold again  
When my rainbow turns the clouds away  
When my blue moon turns to gold again  
You'll be back within my arms to stay."_

-Elvis Presley, "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again"

000

After a couple of drinks Matt Hardy and Mr. Kennedy exited the Galleria Bar.

"Ah, only in Vegas can I get intoxicated eleven in the morning and not get in trouble for it," Kennedy almost half-way finished with his rather large screwdriver.

Matt shrugged. "At least it has orange juice in it."

"Well, might as well follow up one sin with another, how about some gambling?" Kennedy gave the elder Hardy a friendly slap on the back.

Matt peered over at the casino, then shook his head. "I'd better check on Jeff, and see how he's doing."

"Be honest Matt, if you were in Jeff's situation would you want your older brother hanging around?" Kennedy quirked an eyebrow at Matt.

Matt pondered that question for a moment when a loud, distinctive "Whooo!" erupted from the casino.

Kennedy grinned. "I think I hear the 'Nature Boy' calling. You do what you want, I'm gonna check it out."

Matt shrugged and decided to follow the Green Bay wrestler. They entered the casino and quickly discovered the noise was coming from the craps table at the other end. At the table were MVP, "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, John Cena, and Eddie Fatu, also known as Umaga. Matt was caught a little off guard when he spotted Jeff at the end of the table rolling the dice.

"Jeff what are you doing here?" Matt asked a little incredulously. He couldn't believe Jeff was in the casino, playing at the tables after the mess he had gotten himself into. Wasn't he supposed to be with Maria?

"Well, Maria and I ran into CM Punk on the way back to the room," Jeff explained in a matter-of-fact fashion laced with bitterness, while he placed his bets. "And now she can't stand the sight of me. So I'm just hanging out here until I feel it's safe to go back to the room, or until I lose too much money."

"Oh…How much money have you lost so far?" Matt asked nervously, worried as his little brother sometimes could be a little too laid back about his finances.

"None, man!" MVP announced. "He's been winning all of us money since he got here."

"He's our boy!" Ric flair grinned and patted Jeff on the back

Kennedy still looked unconvinced. "What made you guys decide to bet on his rolls?"

Umaga stepped up to answer that one. "When a man comes to Las Vegas, and wakes up one morning to find himself with a beautiful goddess for a wife. He is lucky, whether he knows it or not."

Jeff rolled his eyes. "Yeah, maybe Lady Luck is just taking pity on me." He rolled the dice and it came up another good number.

"I see what you mean…" Kennedy said taking more of an interest, while Matt nodded.

"Look I hate to be the party-pooper, cause you all know I'm not," Matt began. "But, Jeff I think you should be spending a little time with your wife."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Jeff nodded at Matt. "Just one more roll."

Moans of disappointment emitted from the other guys, at the thought of their good luck charm going away.

Jeff grinned as a light bulb went on in his head. Since this was his last roll he figured, to go ahead and bet big. He grinned even more at his older brother's face when he placed two $100 chips down on the square of the "hard twelve". By placing this bet, Jeff was betting on that his next roll would have both dice come up six. If he succeeded, the payoff would be big, however his chances of getting that "hard twelve" were slim to none.

"Jeff! You just put $200 down on a sucker bet!" Matt exclaimed.

"Yup." Jeff said non-chalantaly, he knew even with this bet he still had $300 in winnings left and he started with only $50 so that was the most he could lose out of his own pocket. He was just trying to annoy Matt, and there was the chance his luck just might hold out.

"Now that is crazy," Ric Flair chuckled and put down a $50 chip on the "hard twelve" as well. "I want in on this."

"Me too." Umaga put a chip on the space.

"You're all crazy!" Cena Laughed. "I can't wait to see how this plays out."

"Oh, God…" Matt groaned in the background.

"All right, Matt!" Jeff announced, picking up the dice. "Give me some extra Hardy mojo!"

Matt, still looking nervous, waved his hands over Jeff's while the younger Hardy shook the dice. "Mojo! Mojo!"

Jeff rolled the dice and sure enough the number he wanted came up. The hard twelve. With $200 down on the square that had 30 to 1 odds tied to it, Jeff now found himself up about $6,000.

Matt stood there wide-eyed, while Jeff nearly collapsed on the floor n shock. Sure he hoped he would win, but he had never really expected it to happen. Umaga and Ric were jumping up and down that they had won, While MVP and Cena bemoaned the fact they had not placed a bet there as well.

"Whooo! We won!" Ric Flair hugged the shocked Hardy.

"Lady Luck is with you Hardy!" Umaga cheered gave him a friendly slap on the back which unintentionally knocked all the air out of the young Hardy's lungs.

Jeff shook his head to clear it and breathe a bit. "Okay I think I'm out now, give me my money!"

000

About an hour later the casino security had cleared that Jeff had indeed won the money legally, and get all the tax paperwork squared away. Umaga had cashed in his chips from the win as well, while Ric stayed on to gamble some more.

"Can you believe it?" Matt rasped, still in shock. "I mean I was there and I still don't believe it!"

"I know!" Jeff beamed at his brother. "You know what I want to do right now?"

"What?!" Matt asked eagerly,

"I wanna go do one of them $500 slot machines or $1000 blackjack tables in one of those big fancy rooms," Jeff grinned.

"Yeah!" Matt grinned back, still completely caught up in Jeff's excitement. "I'm going to go to the bathroom real quick I'll meet you up there okay?"

"All right see you in a bit."

The younger Hardy made his way up to the big fancy gambling rooms on the second floor with the high stakes playing. Everyone there was dressed in fancy suits and formal wear, while Jeff was dressed in his usual garb of baggy cargo pants and a sports jersey, with his hair dyed the colors of the rainbow. Naturally, he stuck out like a sore thumb and that attracted the attention of one of the floor security guards.

"Can I help you, sir?" The security guard addressed Jeff as politely as possible.

"Oh, I wanna try of them $500 slot machines," Jeff said simply.

The security guard nodded, deciding to give Jeff the benefit of the doubt and led him to one of the slot machines. It would not be the first time at Caesar's Palace that a high roller came in dressed oddly. It was Vegas after all.

Jeff grinned, inwardly laughing at the funny looks all of the other players were giving him. He didn't care what they thought of him, he was having a good time. He put $500 in the slot machine, inserted his players comp card, and pulled the lever.

000

"Matt! Matt! Matt!" Jeff located his brother, who was just coming out of the bathroom.

"What? What? What?" Matt looked at his little brother's beaming face excitedly. "Did you win?"

"Sorta…"

Matt frowned. "What do you mean sorta?"

"Well, I pulled the lever and I won nothing," Jeff explained excitedly. "But, I put my player's comp car in and I racked up a ton of points. And won a free night in the Absolut suite!"

"The Absolut suite?" Matt quirked an eyebrow curiously.

"Yeah! Remember when we were looking at Caesar's palace online before we came here. The Absolut suite is that one where it has all the spaces that represent different flavors of Absolut!"

"No shit!" Matt's jaw dropped.

"Come on! Let's go check it out!"

After about ten minutes the brothers opened the door and stepped into the infamous bi-level, 1,380 square foot Absolut-inspired suite. After a quick surveillance sweep they discovered it was divided into six spacious and colorful areas, each one representing the six different ABSOLUT vodka flavors.

The entry way was orange and gold to represent the Absolut Mandarin flavor, the lounge was pinkish red and purple for Absolut Rasberri, there was a private dance floor that screamed Absolut Citron, while the cabana style balcony said gentle voice of Absolut Peach, the sitting room was the essence of Absolut's Ruby Red, and the two bed rooms were cool blue and cream colors for Absolut's Vanilla flavor.

"Dude! Jeff! This place matches your hair!" Matt shouted excitedly as he plopped down in one of the lounge couches.

"I know!" Jeff called from the sitting area. "I am so painting my house like this!"

"Ha!" Matt laughed. "Let me know when you do, I want to see it!"

"Yeah, hey you and Ashley welcome to crash here if you want," Jeff said as he came into the lounge area and plopped down next to Matt.

"Yeah?" Matt brightened up.

"Of course," Jeff slapped him on the slapped him on the shoulder. "You're my brother and you gave me the winning mojo."

Just then Jeff got up and grinned and ran down the hallway toward one of the bedrooms.

"Where are you going?" Matt called after him.

"Breaking this place in Hardy style!" Jeff ran into one of the rooms and Swanton bombed on to the bed.

Matt followed him in more calmly in time to see his brother land on the bed and laughs.

Jeff lay there for a few moments looking up at the ceiling, as happy as can be. "This is so awesome!" Suddenly he sat up. "Hey I just thought of something."

Matt leaned on the doorframe. "What?"

"I'm going to give you some money and you and Ashley are going to get dressed up all nice, and go to the club here." Jeff explained his idea. "I think it's called PURE, but I heard it's a pretty hot club right now. Now, you're going to do it VIP style with a table with full bottle service and everything."

"Really?!" Matt stared at him in shock. "You are the best brother ever!"

"Well so are you, now it's my turn," Jeff grinned. "Now of course you have to take a bunch of Ashley's diva friends along too."

"Right, you get extra special treatment if you're with an entourage of hot women," Matt smiled and pulled out his cell phone and dialed Ashley's number. "Ash honey...? It's matt... what're y9ou doing? Great! Want to go clubbing? Yes, I'm serious!! Jeff won big time and he wants to go out celebrating. Oh and, Sweetie? Call up about five or six of your diva friends and tell them they're going partying tonight!! Yeah, we're probably all going to get together around 9pm and we can get some dinner before going. Alright, Love ya too..." Matt kissed the phone before hanging up.

"It's all settled man," Matt grinned, then frowned as he realized. "Oh, Ashley doesn't know you and Maria had issues, she's probably going to invite Maria to go along with her."

"That's okay, because I'm not going with you guys," Jeff said simply.

"Wait, what?" Matt furrowed his brow in concern, it felt weird that Jeff was paying for the evening, but then not going himself.

"Actually, I'm going to need you to call Ashley back," Jeff directed. "I've already got something planned for Maria."

"Yeah…?" Matt slowly dialed Ashley's number again, a little confused at where Jeff was going with this.

Jeff smiled a little. "She's going to have a nice fancy room service dinner with me out on that balcony, with champagne and all. And maybe..." He looked down a little shy. "Maybe she'll think better of me..."

Matt gave him a sympathetic look. "Yeah... that sounds like a wonderful gesture." Then he smiled again, a real smile. "I didn't know you could be so romantic. You never know you might get lucky again. This seems to be your night. He waved his hands at Jeff like he did in the casino. "Mojo, mojo..."

Jeff smiled back a little more confidently, but then turned serious. "Thanks, now I need you to call up Ashley and tell her, to tell Maria to come up to this room at 9pm. Tell Ashley that I have something special planned for Maria, but not to tell Maria what's going down." Jeff mad sure his directions were very clear. He really did not want to screw this up. "Just have Ashley tell Maria to come up to this room, under the pretense that we are all going to meet here before going to the club. Tell Ashley to do whatever it takes to get Maria up to this room."

"You got it little bro," Matt pressed the "call" button. "Come on Ash honey... answer the phone... Ashley!! Yes, everything's okay. Jeff has a favor he wants me to ask you... no, nothing bad." He chuckled. "He just wants you to call Maria and get her to come up here." Matt listed off the room number. "He's got something special planned for her tonight, and it's a surprise. Yeah... We're invited back here too... Yeah, it's one of the ultra suites like in the movies. All right baby see you at nine." He kissed the phone again before hanging up and grinned at Jeff. "It's a done deal man, now I gotta figure out what I'm going to wear."

Jeff laughed. "Be sure you look slammin' hot, you want to look good as Ashley's arm candy."

"Oh, I intend to be," Matt smirked and wobbled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Hey, Matt..."

"Yeah?"

"Got any other brotherly advice on what I should say or do when Maria comes?"

Matt pondered the question thoughtfully. "Hmmm... No I think you can handle it. Jeff, once she sees what you've got planned for her, she'll forget about being mad. But let her take things as slow as she wants to, or as fast. Let her call the shots. She'll love you all the more for it."

Jeff nodded. "Good advice."

"Thanks… I've gotta go pick out my outfit carefully. Mojo, mojo…" Matt waved his hands one more time before leaving the room.

Jeff chuckled as he reached over to the hotel room phone to call room service to help get everything ready for the special night he had planned

000

_Oh boy! Jeff has something special planned for Maria…But how will she react to it? Unfortunately you have to wait till the next chapter to find that out! Please Review!_


	6. A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You

_**Disclaimer:**__ All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended_

"_There are many girls I have met before  
But I pass them by because I knew  
There would be this magic moment,  
One to last a lifetime through  
When a boy like me meets a girl like you…"_

-Elvis Presley, _"A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You"_

000

Maria took a deep breath to try and calm herself as she stood in front of the door to the room that Ashley said everyone was going meet in. In all honesty she was resistant about going at first, after the mess she had gotten herself into and how miserable she had made CM Punk, she felt it wasn't right for her to go out and party. The other problem about going out was she would have to come face to face with Jeff again. While she had felt bad about snapping at him earlier, he was partially to blame for this and she really did not feel like seeing his face right now. However, Ashley's persistent persuasion finally broke her down and made her get all dressed up for a night of clubbing. At least with going in a group to a club, she could keep herself hidden and as far away from Jeff as possible.

She took another deep breath and knocked on the door. Apparently fate had something against Maria as the person opening the door was none other than Jeff Hardy.

"Hey Maria," he greeted her shyly. "You look nice."

Maria shifted uncomfortably. "Thanks…um…mind if I come in?"

"Of course," Jeff moved aside and opened the door a little wider for her to enter.

Maria stepped in and was quite surprised at the grandness of the room. The second thing she noticed was there was no one else there, just her and Jeff.

"Um…" Maria started nervously, "Where is everyone? Aren't we going to the club?"

"We'll do some dancing later," He grinned as he took her hand and led her out onto the balcony where a lovely table was set up for two with all the trimmings, including candles and champagne. "Right now, it's just the two of us and the Las Vegas landscape.

Maria was completely taken off guard; she hadn't expected this from Jeff at all. Especially, after the way she had treated him earlier, any guilt she had felt before, was doubled ten times over.

"Jeff, I…" she said, staring unbelievingly at the sight that resembled a Hollywood love story set in Las Vegas. "I don't know what to say…"

"Well," Jeff said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "How about we crack open that fancy bottle of champagne?"

Maria tensed a little at his touch, but managed to smile and nod. "Sure."

He pulled out the seat for her and she sat down. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she watched him pick up the bottle of Dom Peringnon Champagne.

"Now let's see if I can get this open without the cork hitting me in the face," Jeff chuckled.

Despite herself, Maria smiled genuinely at him.

"Quite an interesting day we've had, hunh?" Jeff said, as he began twisting the cork.

Maria frowned and looked down. "Yeah, it has…"

"I suppose it could be worse…" Jeff said, still fiddling with the cork. He hadn't meant to upset her, in an effort to brighten things up again, he added. "Think about it... instead of a pretty girl, I could have wound up married to… Kennedy or something."

The joke did not have its desired effect. Instead of laughing, Maria just stared distantly out at the bright cityscape. "At least then me and Phil could have laughed about it..."

Jeff mentally kicked himself for bringing up the subject of what happened at all. "Yeah...Um...Maria, I hope you know I never meant for any of this to happen...I just... I want you know I'm not a bad guy to be around... I didn't mean to come between you and CM…"

"I know..." Maria sighed. "I just... I don't know..." She looked back at him. "Jeff, be careful with that before you hurt yourself."

"Huh?" Jeff looked down. With the conversation going as it was, he had not been paying attention to how he was pulling the cork out of the bottle. The moment he looked down the cork popped out and hit Jeff square in the nose.

"Jeff?!" Maria jumped up from her chair and hurried over to him. "Are you okay?" She helped him to sit down before he fell over. Blood was now flowing freely from his nose.

"Hold on, I'll get a towel!" She ran to the bathroom and grabbed a towel, running it under the water before coming back. "Here." She carefully pressed the towel against his nose to both sop up the blood and apply pressure to stop the bleeding.

Jeff shrugged. "Meh. I've had worse."

Maria smiled and shook her head at him. "I'm going to get something to clean you up a bit and then I'm going to get a doctor up for you. You could have broken you nose..."

"Don't worry it's not broken, I've had my nose broken before, so I know what it feels like," Jeff murmured. He chuckled hollowly. "The only thing that's really hurt is my pride."

"You sure?" she asked, gently wiping the blood from his face.

"Yeah, I'm sure..." Jeff sighed wearily. "So much for a romantic evening, I knew my luck was going too good…"

"Awe..." Maria looked a bit upset, as she felt bad about his evening being ruined. From what she had seen it looked like Jeff had really put a lot of thought into it.

"Serves me right for trying to be something I'm not." Jeff said wryly. "One of those smooth romantic guys. Oh well, I tried…"

"I think you're very romantic..." She smiled and gently pushed his hair behind his ears and cleaned up the last of the blood now that the bleeding had stopped. "In your own special way."

"I appreciate the effort Maria…" Jeff got up and poured himself a glass of the champagne and gulped it down.

The two remained silent for a little while. Maria felt bad that she had been mean to Jeff earlier as he had tried so hard to make the evening nice for her. She decided to at least meet him halfway. She poured herself a glass of champagne, before refilling his glass. She smiled, and clinked her glass against his. "Cheers."

Jeff smiled back. "Cheers…"

"So, "Maria began, after taking a sip. "What else did you have planned this evening?"

"Well, I was thinking of having a romantic dinner, but the blood coming out of my nose kind of put a damper on the mood," Jeff chuckled. "Then I was thinking we could go over to the club PURE, and meet up with Matt and the others, and do some dancing."

"Dancing sounds really good," Maria said and gulped down her champagne. "Could we go now? I'd rather have dinner later; a full tummy makes me tired."

"Sure," Jeff nodded. "If that's what you want to do."

Maria smiled and grabbed his hand. "Come on then!"

000

A few minutes later Jeff and Maria arrived at club PURE and ascended the staircase to the terrace, where they spotted Matt sitting with Ashley and some of the other Divas were sitting in one of the cabana booths. Like Jeff had suggested before, they got the VIP treatment which included the cabana, a private cocktail waitress and three bottles of Grey Goose Vodka.

"Hey, Jeff!" Matt called out when he spotted his little brother. "Over here!"

Jeff grinned as he led Maria over to where the group was gathered.

"Hey! The couple of the hour!" Mickie James announced.

"Maria, Jeff, have a seat," Ashley patted the seat next to her and Maria sat down, however, Jeff did not.

"Jeff?" Maria looked at him in surprise.

"I just had an idea," Jeff winked at Maria then looked over at his brother. "Hey Matt, how about you and I clear on out of here?"

"What? Why?" Matt looked at his brother like he had three heads. The elder Hardy was having a perfectly good time.

"So we can leave the girls alone," At Matt's confused expression, he continued. "Bachelorette party, man!"

"Oh, duh," Matt mock smacked himself upside the head for being so slow on the uptake.

"That's right!" Candice spoke up. "Maria never got one."

"Well, no time like the present right?" Torrie raised her glass.

As if on cue their cocktail waitress cam back with a new bottle of Grey Goose Vodka – their second one.

"Hey the new bride and groom just arrived," Beth Phoenix called out to the waitress. "Get those poor people a drink!"

"Congratulations! How do you want your drinks?" the waitress asked cheerfully.

"Martini, very dry, please," Maria ordered.

"Same thing, except make mine heavy," Jeff chuckled.

The waitress nodded and began preparing their drinks.

"I thought we were leaving…" Matt quirked an eyebrow at his brother.

"We are," Jeff said while he waited for his drink. "But if I'm paying for this Vodka, by god I'm going to have at least one drink."

"Maria, you little stinker," Lillian Garcia teased. "Here we all thought the big romance was between you and CM Punk, you had us all fooled."

"And what's with the rush?" Michelle McCool asked. "You didn't invite any of us to the wedding."

"Yeah! I've always wanted to be a bridesmaid!" Kelly Kelly added.

"Well," Maria picked up her Martini and looked at Jeff who now had his Martini as well. She raised her glass. "Here's to living in the moment."

Jeff smiled a little and raised his glass too. "To living in the moment."

Everyone else looked at each other and raised their glasses as well. "Too living in the moment!"

Jeff drank his vodka Martini down then slapped Matt on the shoulder. "All right, now I'm ready to go."

"See ya' later ladies have fun!" Matt waved back at them as he and Jeff departed.

000

"Is that blood on my shirt?" Matt pointed to the distinctive red spots on the silver and black silk shirt he had loaned Jeff for the evening.

Jeff looked down at the red dots then looked apologetically at Matt. "I'm sorry ,man; the blood came out of my nose faster than I could get a towel there."

Matt's eyebrows shot up. "Your nose? What happened? Did you and Maria get into a fight?"

"Nah, my nose got assaulted by a champagne cork," Jeff chuckled, a little embarrassed.

Matt threw his head back and laughed. "I'm sorry, but that's great, that's so classic."

Jeff shook his head, laughing a long with Matt. "I know…I was lucky my nose didn't get broken."

"Yeah, next time point the bottle away from your face, little brother," Matt patted him on the back.

"Yeah, yeah," Jeff rolled his eyes, and stopped in front of the bathroom. "Hang on, I gotta make a stop."

Matt was about to follow his brother into the bathroom when a light bulb went on in his head and a Cheshire cat grin appeared on his face. He pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialed a number.

"Hey, Montel," Matt greeted MVP on the other line. "You claim you have the 'hook-up' around Las Vegas, well I'm about to call you in on that."

Getting out of the bathroom, took Jeff a little longer than he thought. Mainly due to the fact his nose had started bleeding again and he had to wait till it stopped, before exiting. Little did he know this delay would prove to be a stroke of luck for Matt just outside, plotting something special for his little baby brother.

"You okay?" Matt asked when Jeff finally emerged from the bathroom.

"Yeah, I don't think I got anymore blood on your shirt," Jeff said stuffing some extra Kleenex into his back pocket.

"Ah, don't worry about it, little brother," Matt waved it off. "Let's get out of here before the girls discover us here and think we're spying on them."

Jeff nodded and followed his brother toward the club's exit.

When they were nearing the exit, Matt looked over his shoulder at Jeff, who was looking a little tired. "Still feel like partying?"

"Yeah, where else should we go?"

The mischievous grin of the Cheshire cat once again appeared on Matt's face and he put an arm around his little brother's shoulders. "Don't worry I've got that planned out…"

"Why am I suddenly feeling afraid….very afraid?" Jeff laughed.

Matt chuckled as they exited the club and spotted a group of other WWE superstars. The group included, Ric Flair, MVP, John Cena, Batista, Shannon Moore, Bobby Lashley Mr. Kennedy, Paul London and Brian Kendrick.

"Hey! It's the Man of the Hour!" Cena called over to the Hardy brothers.

Jeff grinned as he and Matt walked over to the group.

"Well, now that they are here, let's head on out!" Ric Flair led the way.

"It's about time, the limo is probably already out there."

Jeff automatically started to follow, but then stopped. "Um…Where are we going?"

"Now that would ruin the surprise!" Ric chuckled as he pushed Jeff along.

"And we wouldn't want that, little brother." Matt winked at him.

Jeff began feeling uneasy at what the other guys had planned for him. "Uh, guys, I don't know if I have the energy…"

"Uh, oh. I'm seeing resistance," Brian Kendrick laughed.

"Quick plan 'B'!" Paul London and everyone else looked over at Batista.

Before Jeff could even open his mouth to find out what they meant; he suddenly found himself slung over Batista's shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Who said you had a choice?" Kennedy grinned. "You're going whether you like it or not."

"Okay… can Batista at least put me down?" Jeff attempted to slip out of the Animal's grasp, with little luck. "All the blood's rushing to my head. My nose might start bleeding!"

"Oh, come on," Brian laughed. "All us high-flyers know you don't get nose bleeds just by being upside down."

"Yeah you have to hit your head on the mat or the turnbuckle first!" Lashley chuckled.

"Heh… Right…" Jeff plastered a smile on his face; all the while he pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping to prevent a possible nose bleed.

A few minutes later Jeff was practically thrown into the limo, with the other guys piling in behind him.

"To the Sapphire Gentlemen's club, please," Flair called out to the driver.

Jeff gingerly let go of his nose, and when he was sure that it was not going to bleed again, he took the opportunity to ask, "What's the Sapphire Gentlemen's Club?"

"You'll see…" Shannon Moore now had the same Cheshire cat grin Matt had before; in fact all of the superstars in the limo seemed to have that same grin. It was a little unnerving to say the least.

"Okay…Now I'm scared…" Jeff sank back a little in his seat.

"What are you afraid of?" Matt chuckled.

"You being in league with them," Jeff gave his brother a "I know you're up to something naughty" look.

"Uh-oh, I think he's on to us, Matt," Cena joked.

"Well…Don't mess me up too much," Jeff insisted. "I'm wearing Matt's favorite silk shirt."

"Damn…" Matt snapped his fingers in mock frustration. "Oh well, I'm willing to make the sacrifice for the greater good."

"Oh man…" Jeff laughed. "Now I know I'm in trouble…"

000

A few minutes later the limo pulled up to a large modern looking building highlighted by blue lights. Jeff got out of the vehicle and looked at the building curiously. "All right, where the hell are we?"

"The Sapphire Gentlemen's club!" Ric announced.

"Known for its good drinks, elegant ambiance and gorgeous half-naked women," Cena added, grinning from ear to ear.

"And thanks to MVP you are getting the VIP." Montel Montavious Porter drew himself up proudly.

"You mean this is a…?" Jeff looked at everyone in surprise.

"Bachelor party, Jeffie!" Matt gave his little brother a small noogie. "Yup, the one good thing about my new tag-team partner, between him and Ric they had the total hook-up to everything!"

"Your night, your bachelor party, Jeff," Batista grinned.

"Yeah…? Thanks guys!" Jeff beamed at all of them.

"Thank your brother." Brian patted Matt on the back. "He got us all together."

"You're the best brother in the world, Matt." Jeff threw an arm around his older brother's shoulders.

Matt shrugged. "Well, since Maria is getting a bachelorette party, I figured you should get a party of your own, and the guys agreed with me."

"That and this is the best way for all of us to go to something like this and not get in trouble with our girlfriends or wives," Kennedy added.

"Thanks, Jeff!" Lashley laughed.

"Well, what are we all standing around here for?" Shannon pointed to the building. "Let's get in there and get an eyeful of some goodies!"

000

"How's your nose?" Matt looked over from his lounge chair at Jeff. After getting back to the hotel room, and changing out of their formal clothes into more comfortable ones, the two brothers settled down in the balcony lounge chairs and began drinking the champagne in the bottle, whose cork had assaulted Jeff's nose earlier.

"Good, it's stopped bleeding," Jeff took the washcloth off his nose and chuckled. "I had hoped it would have waited until it got back here, but I think that lap dance, you guys bought me, was too much for my poor nose to handle."

Matt laughed. "At least you didn't sneeze…"

"Heh. Yeah, I was lucky enough there." Jeff poured himself another glass of champagne and refilled Matt's glass.

"Ah, this is the life…" Matt sipped his champagne and gazed out over the glittering cityscape.

"Yeah…" Jeff murmured drowsily, when he suddenly sat up grinning drunkenly. "You know there is something I've always want to do…"

"What?"

Jeff picked up the bottle of champagne. "This is a $200 bottle of Dom Peringnon champagne, right? Watch this." With that Jeff drank it straight down as if it were a bottle of beer.

Matt started laughing, not knowing exactly why he had found it so funny, but when you were as plastered as the two brothers were, you really didn't need a reason for finding something incredibly funny.

"Try it! It's awesome!" Jeff handed the bottle over to Matt.

"Okay!" Matt grabbed the bottle and began chugging as well.

"Chug! Chug! Chug! Hardy! Hardy! Hardy!" Jeff began chanting like the WWE fans did.

In the end, Matt had to stop drinking as he was laughing too hard. Meanwhile, Jeff ran to the balcony railing and yelled out to the city. "Whoo! Vegas, baby, yeah!"

"Viva Las Vegas! Viva Las Vegas!" Matt began singing and dancing as if he were Elvis, though his balance was a bit off from the alcohol.

Just then Ashley and Maria came in to see their boys, singing and dancing like drunken idiots.

"Oh my God! It's Elvis dressed up like Matt Hardy!" Ashley called out as if she were a gushing fangirl.

"Hey, pretty mama," Matt sauntered over to her, pulled her close. "What's a nice girl like you doing with a guy like me?"

"I'm a big fan of yours," she said, kissing him.

Matt chuckled and deepened the kiss, until they were practically making out in the entrance hall. So much so that Maria began to feel uncomfortable, just standing there, watching them. She discreetly began moving toward the balcony. In fact, she was so focused on trying not to disturb Matt and Ashley that she nearly jumped five feet in the air when she ran into Jeff.

"Hey there, did you have a good time?" the younger Hardy asked.

"Yes, I did," she said and after a little hesitation she kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, Jeff, it was so wonderful of you to do that."

Jeff smiled a little at the kiss. "Well, I thought you deserved a bachelorette party after getting you into trouble."

"Oh, well I got myself into trouble as much as you did." She smiled a little back at him and walked over to one of the lounge chairs and sat down.

"Wanna help me polish off this champagne that had the audacity to attack me?" Jeff chuckled.

Maria giggled a little, "Normally I'd say 'yes,' but I think I've had enough alcohol for one night, I don't want to get married twice."

Jeff threw his head back and laughed. "Yeah, you're right." He set the bottle down and settled into the other lounge chair.

They heard music come on in the back ground, and the distinctive voice of Elvis singing "A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You."

Jeff got up and peeked in through the window and saw Matt and Ashley slow dancing in the lounge. He smiled as he sat back down and looked over at Maria who seemed to be dozing off. Her face was highlighted by the soft light coming from the city.

"_When a boy like me meets a girl like you  
Then I must believe wishes come true  
I just look at you and I touch your hand  
And this ordinary world becomes a wonderland…."_

Whether it was the spell of the alcohol or the soft crooning of Elvis' voice singing the song, on the lyric of "I just look at you and I touch your hand…" Jeff reached out and gently took Maria's hand in his. Maria jumped a little, startled out of her half slumber.

"Sorry." Jeff looked at her apologetically. "I wasn't sure if you were awake or not."

Maria shook her head to try and clear it. "Oh that's okay; I think the vodka martinis are starting to really catch up to me."

"Yeah, that happens," Jeff murmured, holding up his empty hand in front of his face as if already missing the warmth of her hand.

After awhile the Elvis songs died down as the CD ended. By that time Matt and Ashley had "retired", so the CD had not restarted again. A thick silence passed between Maria and Jeff, since they were still feeling a little uncomfortable alone with each other.

"Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be sucked up into a black hole?" Jeff asked suddenly.

Maria looked at him like he had three heads for bringing up such a strange question out of the blue. She pondered it for moment and attributed the random question to the discomfiture between them and the alcohol.

"I don't know, I never really though about it…" Maria said, and deciding to humor Jeff, she answered, "I guess you wouldn't really feel anything since you're out in the vacuum of space, and because of that you're probably dead."

"Hmm, good point…" Jeff mulled it over and grinned. "But what if you were in a life supporting space suit or something?"

Maria quirked an eyebrow at him as she couldn't believe that he was continuing to pursue this subject. She shrugged and decided to continue to humor him. "Yeah? Doesn't time slow down in those things, so it would take you years to die, yet to you it would only be a minute or two? I wish I had listened better in my physics class…"

Jeff got up and sat on the edge of Maria's lounge chair. "Well, science can only go so far, Physics only goes so far. Scientist can add this up logically and tell you how it works, but it doesn't tell you about the experience of something, you know?"

"I guess so…But the problem is once you fall in you can't get out, so how would they know without anyone to report back?" Maria pointed out, this time in earnest.

"But that's just it! How do they know that can't get out?" Jeff grinned enthusiastically. "I mean what if there's another side to it...to another world...another universe...another dimension..."

"Hmmm... maybe there is. Maybe that's where the Bermuda triangle goes to too," Maria said thoughtfully.

"Holy shit! I never thought of that! What if the Bermuda triangle is a miniature black hole?" Jeff said excitedly.

"Could be…" Maria giggled, as she was starting to get caught up in Jeff's enthusiasm. "Maybe that's what happened to Atlantis!"

"Yeah!" Jeff grinned even brighter. "It could reappear one day."

"Who knows?" Maria shrugged. "Anything's possible, right?"

"Exactly," Jeff nodded. "So want to ask me any questions?"

"Yeah…" She said sitting up to face him. "I heard you had your own band. Can you really sing?"

"Yup." He got up and held out his hand to her. "How about a dance too?" Maria smiled and took his hand. He pulled her to her feet and held her close. "Let's see if I can remember that song…"

Jeff did remember the song and they slow danced to him softly singing "A Boy Like Me, A Girl like you."

Maria felt herself slowly melting into his shoulder at the gentle tones of his soft voice.

"Any other requests?" Jeff asked after he had finished the song.

"Do you know the song 'Maria' from 'Westside Story'?" Maria asked.

"I think so," Jeff said thoughtfully. "Let me try it."

After a few seconds of reflecting on the lyrics, Jeff began to sing

"_Maria, I've just met a girl named Maria, and suddenly the name will never be the same to me…"_

Suddenly, Jeff stopped and took Maria's face in between his hands. Much to her surprise, he leaned forward and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. Then he continued to sing.

_"Maria! I've just kissed a girl named Maria. And suddenly I've found how wonderful a sound can be…."_

Maria stared at him, shocked for a moment, before she slipped out of his embrace, and started heading back toward the room. "Um…It's already three a.m. and we have to leave for the next city tomorrow," she said uneasily. "We should get some sleep."

"Right..." Jeff sighed, disappointed. She was still uncomfortable to be around him. He hadn't meant to kiss her. The song, her standing there looking beautiful, it just sort of happened…

000

_Poor Jeff…His romantic evening didn't come off like he wanted it to. At least he got a bachelor party! Hopefully things will become easier between Maria and Jeff…but you never know…_


	7. Pocket Full of Rainbows

_**Disclaimer:**__ All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended_

"_Mister Heartache  
I've found a way to make him leave  
Got a pocketful of rainbows  
Got a star up in my sleeve"_

Elvis Presely, _"A Pocket Full of Rainbows."_

000

Maria groaned a little as she opened her eyes to the bright sun, shining in through the window. As her vision cleared she found herself practically nose to nose with Jeff Hardy. She became very aware of Jeff's arms around her, holding her close to him.

She took comfort in the fact that her pajamas were still intact, but wondered what had become of the barrier of pillows they had set up between them before going to sleep. She carefully untangled herself from Jeff's arms; luckily the young Hardy was sleeping like a rock so he did wake at her sudden movement. Maria saw the pillows had fallen on her side of the bed and she felt a little bad about mentally accusing Jeff of moving them, and sneaking up on her during the night.

She got out of bed a stretched, formulating possible things she could say to CM Punk the next time she saw him. She looked back over at Jeff, who was now only half covered by a sheet, and only wearing his boxers underneath. The soft glow of the morning sun gave his skin a golden sheen and his multi-colored hair seemed to sparkle. She reached out a hand at first just to pull the sheet up to his shoulder, but instead her hand seemed to shift of its own accord to brush a clump of purple hair away from his face.

He stirred and she drew her hand back quickly, wondering what had possessed her to reach out and touch him in the first place. With a soft groan he rolled over, facing away from her, letting his rainbow mane splay all over his back and the surrounding pillows.

She shook her head to stop herself from staring. She turned and slipped into the bathroom to take a shower and get dressed.

A little while later there was a loud knock at the bedroom door that jolted Jeff out of his slumber.

"Jeff!" Matt called from outside the door. "Wakey-Wakey!"

"Okay, okay…" Jeff grumbled, sliding out of bed.

The sudden awakening had left poor Jeff completely disoriented, which in turn made him forget that he was a; not in his room at home and b; he was not alone. He automatically went straight for the bathroom and opened the door. Unfortunately, just as he was stepping into the bathroom, Maria was stepping out of the shower.

There was slight delay in reaction time as the two just stared at each other, slowly beginning to comprehend the situation. Jeff was standing in the doorway wearing only his boxers, while Maria had just pulled the shower curtain back and was wearing nothing at all. Then as if something clicked inside their minds at the same time, Maria yelped and covered herself with a nearby towel, while Jeff dashed out of the bathroom slamming the door behind him in his rush, saying "I'm sorry" over and over again. They both sat in their respective spots blushing bright red.

Maria couldn't figure out why she was so embarrassed. After all she and Candice had practically stripped each other naked at the ECW strip poker event and that had been on live television for millions of viewers to see. So why was she so embarrassed now? Perhaps it was just the situation as a whole and the fact that she was not expecting it.

Jeff also could not figure out why he was so embarrassed. After all it wasn't as if he had never seen a naked woman before; he had seen his fair share and it would not be the first time he had walked into the wrong bathroom at the wrong time. So why was he so embarrassed now? Perhaps it was just the situation as a whole and the fact that he was not expecting it.

"Jeff!" Matt's voice called out again from the other side of the bedroom door, though this time it sounded more teasing than nagging. "Your lazy ass is getting on my nervlies!"

"Okay, okay, what's the big rush?" Jeff grumbled looking over at the clock. "It's only nine am, we don't have to check out till eleven am."

"Yeah, but Ashley and I ordered room service breakfast and they'll be here soon," Matt said. "You don't want it to be cold, so get your ass out here."

"All right, let me get some clothes on first!" Jeff snapped back as he wandered over to his bag and grabbed the first piece of clothing he saw, his Hardys illustrated t-shirt.

He had just slipped the shirt on when Maria came out of the bathroom, now fully clothed with her wet hair held up in a bun by hair chopsticks.

"Hey, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to walk in on you like that…" Jeff said, looking down at the floor.

"It's okay, it happens…" Maria shrugged, trying to sound casual even though she was blushing profusely and couldn't look him completely in the eye.

"Um…" Jeff began, automatically heading to the door. "Matt said room service is coming with breakfast soon, so…" He opened the door for her.

She smiled shyly and slipped past him, keeping her eyes averted from him. He followed her out and into the lounge where Matt and Ashley were sitting.

"Heh, I knew if I banged on the door enough you'd come out," Matt grinned. He chuckled when he caught sight of Jeff's boxers. "Good to see you haven't thrown away the classics."

Jeff, Maria and Ashley looked down to see Jeff was wearing bright blue boxers with little yellow ducks on them. Ashley burst into giggles, while Jeff absently rubbed the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed.

Suppressing a chuckle, Maria smiled at Jeff as she sat down and finally looked him in the face. "I think they're cute, Jeff."

"Really?" Jeff grinned sheepishly back at her. Some how her good opinion made all the difference and he sat down next to her on the couch.

Not long after that, their breakfast came. They ate quickly then started the chore of getting dressed properly and packing away their stuff. There was a knock at the main door. When Matt opened it all he found was a package lying on the ground addressed to Jeff and Maria.

"Hey Jeff, package for you and Maria," Matt said as he tossed the package to Jeff.

"Huh, I wonder what this is…" Jeff murmured, looking at the package. He noticed the return address was from "Elvis' 'Love Me Tender' Wedding Chapel", the place in which he and Maria had been married.

As he opened the package he prayed that it was some paper informing them that their marriage was somehow null and void. Instead he found a bunch of pictures. He winced a little as the first picture in the pile was of him and Maria kissing rather passionately. No doubt this was at the "kiss the bride" part of the ceremony.

The next one was of them looking at the camera smiling. Both of them were holding the boquet and an Elvis impersonator was standing behind them. Jeff swallowed hard, he felt strangely remorseful that he couldn't even remember the happy moment at the start of this whole mess.

"What'cha looking at?" Maria peered over his shoulder.

"Our wedding pictures," Jeff said, handing the first two pictures to her.

"Heh," Maria smiled a little sadly as she looked at them. "We actually look happy here…"

"Yeah," Jeff murmured as he looked at the next photo, and nearly dropped the entire pile when he saw it. "Oh my God…"

"What?" Maria looked over at the photo and gasped.

The photo was another picture of them, but also the other members of their wedding party, which of course included Mr. Kennedy, but also Randy Orton and Adam "Edge" Copeland…

000

_Well, it seems Edge has a hand in this whole situation, is this another one of his sneaky plans?_


	8. Are You Sincere?

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

"_And are you really mine every day, all the time  
I've gotta know which way to go  
Will our love grow, are you sincere…"_

Elvis Presely, _"Are you Sincere?"_

000

Mark Calaway, more famously known as "The Undertaker" or just "Taker" for short, walked along side his younger half-brother, "The Big Red Machine", Kane. Even though he was dressed in his more normal street clothes, Taker wore his signature western hat to help the blaring hallway lights from making his headache even worse. They had made the mistake of getting into a drinking contest with Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin –who had made a cameo appearance at the show- the previous night. The mistake was drinking to many shots and not enough water, which left the Brothers of Destruction with a rather nasty hangover and in an even nastier mood.

As they rounded a corner they spotted a small group of their fellow wrestlers that included Randy Orton, Ken Kennedy and Adam "Edge" Copeland.

"Oh look, it's the 'Geriatric Killer,' the 'Loudmouth,' and 'Anybody, but that guy'," Kane grumbled as they drew closer.

"Great…" Taker groaned, pulled his hat down to shadow his eyes even more.

"Hey, look it's 'demon spawn' and the 'guy who's been hanging around too long and won't die'," Randy grumbled when he saw Taker and Kane approaching them to wait for an elevator.

"Go to hell and rot," Taker muttered.

"Fair warning," Kane said. "We're in a mood right where we will kick your ass on a dime, so I advise you to keep your mouths shut about us."

"Okay, people let's all just calm down and make peace," Edge said, stepping into his role of playing peace keeper in order to avoid getting involved in a fight. "It's too early in the morning and our hangovers are still too acute for ass kicking, okay?"

"Could you all just stop yelling until my Tylenol starts working?" Kennedy said, plugging his ears.

For the sake of their headaches the two groups made a silent truce while they waited for an elevator, and thus chose to just simply ignore each other.

000

"When I find Edge, I'm going to slug the smirk right off his face," Jeff grumbled as he shouldered his duffel bag. He rode the elevator alongside Matt, Maria and Ashley to the lobby so they could checkout out of the hotel.

Matt nodded. "You know, I'd be happy to help you do that."

"I knew Edge was a jerk, but I didn't realize he was this bad…"Ashley growled. "Manipulating two people into getting married? I wanna slug him myself!"

Maria stood, silently fuming, in the back of the elevator.

As Vegas fate and luck would have it, their elevator stopped on the floor where Edge and his group were waiting. No sooner had the elevator door opened and Jeff laid eyes on Edge, the younger Hardy charged out of the elevator, grabbing the R-rated superstar by the front of his shirt. Jeff started screaming every expletive he could think of at him.

"You sneaky son of bitch! Who the fuck do you think you are?!" Jeff shouted into Edge's face.

"Damn it! What's your fucking problem, Hardy?!" Edge growled. He somehow managed to push Jeff away and put some distance between himself and the irate Hardy.

The others just stood there, watching, half shocked, half fascinated to see how this confrontation would play out.

"You and your maniacal schemes!" Jeff snarled. "You manipulated Maria and me while we were plastered, two nights ago, into getting married!"

"What…?" Edge looked at Jeff as if he had three heads.

"Maybe this will refresh your memory," Jeff said as he pulled out the pictures with Edge in it and the marriage license. "I know your previous ring name was Damon Striker and that's what's on this license and that sure as hell is you in the picture!"

Edge took the picture and studied it. "Son of a bitch…"

"Copeland, I'm going to beat your face in!" Jeff slammed his fist into the palm of the other hand. "Thanks to you Maria's chances with CM Punk are ruined!"

"Why the hell are you blaming me?!" Edge protested. "I swear to god I didn't mastermind all of this!"

"Come on you guys," Randy stepped up in Edge's defense. "Adam wouldn't pull something that bad… not like what happened to you and Lita, Matt..."

"Don't go there, man!" Matt growled warningly.

"Now you've broken up not one, but two relationships, Adam!" Jeff shouted.

"Hey!" Edge shouted back. He was getting tired of being accused from all sides, and decided to turn the tables. "How do I know this isn't just some plan by Jeff to get Maria for himself and then lay the blame on me when he got in trouble?!"

"Don't you dare try to weasel your way out of this, Edge!" Jeff snarled. "I would never do something like that and you know it!"

"It wouldn't be the first time you did something stupid, stoner!" Edge countered.

"Shut up!" Jeff shouted, he was on his last nerve of patience. "You apologize for what you did to Maria right now!"

"I'm not going to apologize for something I didn't do!" Edge snapped indignantly.

"I said apologize!"

"Make me!"

Jeff's tether of patience finally snapped. "Oh. I'll make you!"

He lunged at Edge, but instead of tackling the R-rated superstar, he found himself slung over the strong shoulder of the Undertaker like a sack of potatoes.

"Enough!" Taker roared, causing almost everyone to freeze.

Jeff, ever the stubborn one, struggled to get out of Taker's grip. "Damn it, Taker! Put me down!"

Already in a bad mood, Taker had no tether to put up with an argument. He punched the side of his fist into the younger Hardy's lower back. A small smile of satisfaction almost crossed the phenom's face when he heard Jeff groan and stop his struggles all together.

"Okay…" Jeff said through teeth clenched in pain. His lower back was his sure-fire weak spot. It took the most damage of any place on his body, thanks to his signature high-flying moves like the Swanton Bomb.

Though Taker had targeted Hardy first to stop the fight, Edge was not getting off Scott-free either. The phenom grabbed the R-rated superstar by his hair and started dragging him down the hallway with Jeff still slung over his shoulder. The scene was strangely reminiscent of a parent dragging their two badly behaving children out of the toy store.

"Kane," Taker said in an exasperated tone, just like a father would on his last nerve with his two kids. "While I deal with the boys here, will check us out and make sure the rest of these idiots don't continue to make the WWE look worse than it already does."

"Will do…" Kane muttered and started herding the others into an open elevator.

Taker stalked back to the hotel room he and Kane shared. Since they had not checked out yet, the key card still worked. Once inside the room Taker threw Edge onto one bed and Jeff on to the other.

"Now what the hell is going on?" the deadman demanded.

"I got married to Maria and Edge was the one who put us up to it while we were drunk!" Jeff grumbled, rubbing his back, which still hurt from Taker's punch.

Taker looked over at Edge and quirked an eyebrow at him.

"I did not!" Edge insisted. "Hardy just doesn't want to own up to his own mistake."

Taker looked back over at Jeff for an explanation.

"Look!" Jeff snapped, "I don't remember anything about the wedding except for this very vivid image of Elvis! Same with Maria!"

"Well I didn't remember anything either until you showed me that picture!" Edge insisted. "In fact I still don't really remember."

"Yeah, right." Jeff crossed his arms over his chest, leveling Edge with an accusatory glare.

Taker rolled his eyes. "So basically neither of you knows, or is pretending to not know, what happened at the wedding."

The two other men remained silent, looking slightly embarrassed that they had been so plastered that they could not even remember what they were doing two nights ago.

"I think there is only one way to really solve this," Taker groaned.

"What?" Jeff and Edge asked at the same time.

Instead of answering, Taker grabbed them both roughly by the arm and dragged them back to the elevators, catching a ride down to the main lobby. Once there, Taker continued to drag them out the hotel door and practically threw them into a Taxi cab, where he ordered the rather shocked driver to head to "The Elvis Love Me Tender Wedding Chapel".

"Where the hell are we going?" Edge demanded, which earned him a 'shut up" glare from the phenom, although he answered him. "To the scene of the dispute."

"How's that going to help?" Jeff raised an eyebrow.

"Almost every place in Vegas has security video tapes, especially the wedding chapels, just for this very reason," Taker explained.

"Oh…"

000

After watching the security video tapes at the chapel, Jeff made the rather disappointing discovery that Edge was no more responsible for this whole situation than he was. In fact, on the tape the R-rated Superstar, Randy Orton and Mr. Kennedy, were just as plastered as Jeff and Maria were.

The whole group seemed to think that the wedding thing was just a big joke, something fun to do on a night out, without realizing it was real.

However, there was one consolation for Jeff in all of this. As a result of his drunken stupor, Edge had insisted on paying for the wedding himself as a wedding gift to Jeff and Maria.

"I was wondering what that $300 charge was." Edge scratched his head thoughtfully. "I was beginning to think me and Randy had gotten a little action that night."

"This sucks," Jeff groaned as they stepped out of the chapel.

Taker was unsympathetic. "Well, it's the grave you dug for yourself. Now lie in it."

"Yup, you can't use me as your scapegoat, Hardy." Edge grinned, which earned him a slap upside the head from Taker. Though the dead man was unsympathetic to Hardy's situation, that did not give Edge license to rag on him as well.

"Hey! What was that for?" Edge snapped.

"You have no right to rag on him as you were a part of it too, even if was indirectly," Taker muttered. "Now come on, let's get back to the hotel."

"Shit," Jeff groaned, as he climbed into the cab. "How am I going to tell Maria…?"

"You're on your own there, kid," Taker said.

However, Edge seemed to have a rare moment of pity. "Just tell her that you never meant her any harm," Edge offered. "Women always love an honest man."

"Like you would know," Jeff muttered.

"Watch it…" Edge growled, irritated that he was being rebuked, when he was finally trying to be nice.

"Calm down, children..." Taker warned. "God, you two are worse than Chasey and Gracie."

"Sorry…"

The three of them rode in the cab in uncomfortable silence for awhile, until Taker's cell phone rang. He pulled it out and, answered it. Kane informed him that everyone was going to go ahead to the airport and that they should meet them there.

Fortunately, the airport was only twenty minutes from the Las Vegas Strip and soon the Phenom, the R-rated Superstar and the Rainbow-Haired Warrior, met up with their group in front of the ticket kiosks. They had agreed to wait until after they had gone through the security checkpoint before discussing what Taker, Jeff and Edge had found out. Jeff had spent most of that time trying not to make eye contact with Maria.

"I've got good news and bad news," Taker said when they had finally arrived at the terminal. "Good news... we figured out what truly happened... the bad news..."

"What's the bad news?" Maria asked nervously, she glanced at Jeff, who looked away, before returning her gaze to Taker.

"You, Jeff, and Edge were so drunk that you all decided that it was a good idea for you and Hardy to get married," Taker came right out and explained when it seemed Jeff wasn't going to.

"What?!" Maria said in disbelief.

"If you don't believe me you can see for yourself." Taker held up a DVD copy of the security segment. "It's all on the security video." He handed it to her and stalked off after Kane to find a seat in the terminal.

Maria buried her head in her hands. Somehow, the situation had not seemed so bad when there had been the possibility that she had been manipulated in this by someone else. Now it was official; she was as much responsible for what had happened as anyone else.

"I told you it wasn't my fault," Edge muttered, as he walked off to join Randy Orton and Shelton Benjamin at the far end of the Terminal.

Jeff finally steeled himself and went over to the distraught Maria. "Please, Maria... you have to understand…"

By now, Mara was sobbing in both sorrow and frustration. "Understand what...? I understand I made a stupid mistake and it messed up the best relationship I ever had..."

"None of us knew that what we were saying… Apparently Fate wanted to have some fun with us," Jeff tried to comfort her. "Don't be so hard on yourself…"

"Phil warned me about it." Maria continued to sob. "I should have listened... I should never have gone to that club with Candice..."

"It's okay..." He lightly embraced her. "I don't want you to be upset."

She shrugged his arms off her shoulders and pushed him away. "Oh for god's sake's let me be upset... it makes me feel better..."

"But there's still going to be pain inside of your heart," Jeff insisted, his own frustration starting to come out. "And you'll still feel awful."

"I'm going to feel miserable no matter what, and you debating with me, is not helping!" she snapped at him.

"Fine!" he said, glaring at her. All he was trying to do was make the best of things, but she was breaking him down at every turn. "I'll leave you alone then."

"Never mind, I'm going for a walk," she muttered as she hurried toward the ladies' room.

Jeff growled irritably as he stormed over to where Matt was sitting and plopped down next to him.

"You guys sound like a married couple already." Matt grinned, trying to be funny.

However, Jeff was not amused. "Shut it…" he muttered, sighing. "I give up… If she's not going to at least meet me half way, I'm just going to stop trying…"

000

After having herself a good cry, Maria walked slowly out of the bathroom, her head hanging low. As fate would have it she ran right into CM Punk.

"Hey there," he said gently.

"Hi," she replied equally as soft, keeping her eyes low. She was afraid, that if she looked him in the eye, she would burst into tears all over again.

"Um…" he began shakily, uncertain of the words he wanted to say. "I'm sorry I was so harsh yesterday, I didn't mean for it to come off like that."

She looked up at him in surprise, before looking down again. "No, you shouldn't apologize. You had every right to be angry. It was my own stupid mistake."

CM shrugged somewhat mournfully. "Well, we all make them, and it is Vegas, so the little mistakes here become big ones."

She looked back up at him gratefully. He was trying so hard to deal with the situation civilly. "I guess so. Still I should have listened to you."

"Well, what's done is done, no use clinging to it." He sighed. "I hear Vince has you tied to Jeff for a year."

Maria nodded and looked down at the floor again.

He stared at her for a few seconds, before reaching out and, placing a hand under her chin; he tilted her face up to look at his own.

"You know, a year can go by pretty fast," he said gently. "Maybe at the end of it, if you still feel the same way about me and I still feel the same way about you, we can get back together."

"Really?" She stared at him in shock. She had not expected that.

"Love is funny like that. You think you know what you love, but then something different comes along and you find you love that more. Sometimes you don't know how much you love something 'til you go without it for awhile," he said thoughtfully. "So after the end of the year, if we still feel the same way about each other, then I guess we'll know it was meant to be. And if we don't then we'll know it wasn't."

Maria nodded and hugged him. "Thank you."

Punk smiled a little and hugged her back, before pulling her forward and, giving her a small kiss on the lips. "So…" he added. "Let's keep an open mind about other relationships, while we're apart."

"Okay, although, I don't know if I can stand seeing you on Kelly Kelly's arm," Maria giggled.

"Oh come on, I'm not _that_ open minded!" He laughed.

000

Maria walked back to her seat in the terminal, feeling a lot happier than she had been in the past two days. She smiled a little when she spotted Jeff, sitting with his eye closed, and listening to his ipod. She felt a little guilty about their rocky start for the year together. Jeff had made every effort to make the best of things and all she had done was push him away and snap at him.

Off in the corner she saw a snack vending machine and a light bulb went on inside her head as she thought of a way to show Jeff that from now on she would be willing to make the best of things too. She walked over to it, got a snickers bar for herself and a bag of skittles as a peace offering for Jeff.

Walked over to where Jeff was sitting and settled down into the seat next to him. She gently nudged his shoulder, causing him to open his eyes and look at her.

"Hey, Jeff," she said quietly, holding out the skittles to him. "I got you a peace offering. I'm really sorry for being such a stubborn jerk."

He grinned at her, taking the skittles, and she grinned back.

"Good. This situation doesn't have to be a bad experience. I'm really not that bad of a person to be around."

"I know you're not." She smiled at him. "You're a very nice person, Jeff, and I'm really sorry I was so ungrateful and bitchy before. I hope you can forgive me."

Jeff popped a few skittles in his mouth. "You gave me skittles; of course I forgive you…"

000

_Well it looks like for once Edge is not the cause of all the trouble, and it looks like everyone has made peace…for now…._

_We'll see how long that lasts… XD_


	9. Rock A Hula Baby

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

"_The way she moves her hips to her fingertips_

_I feel I'm heaven bound_

_And when she starts to sway, I've gotta say_

_She really move the grass around"_

-Elvis Presley_"Rock A Hula Baby"_

000

Maria woke up, from her routine before-the-show nap, to the sound of Jeff singing in the shower. She smiled a little to herself. After a month of being his "wife" she was finally getting used to waking up to his vocal talents.

He actually had a nice voice as she often heard him singing softly to himself while he was drawing or listening to his ipod. Though in the shower he tended to over do it a little and hit some sour notes, but even that she had gotten used to. Instead of huffing irritably when he went off key, she would smile and giggle.

Had it been a month already? With the busy schedule of the WWE, the days seemed to fly by, which was just fine where Maria was concerned. The sooner the year was over the sooner she could patch things up with CM Punk that is if he had not fallen in love with someone else. That was what had saddened her most, while she was tied down to Jeff, Phil was free to see whomever he wanted. It was only fair, considering the circumstances.

As for her and Jeff, they may share the same hotel room, but not the same bed. This kind of represented how their married life went, they would appear on the show and in public places together at first but then split off to join their own circles.

Maria found it funny that she and Jeff seemed more like her parents who had been married for years than newlyweds. Usually the first few months or years of marriage were the passionate, exciting ones and then as the marriage goes on the couple settle into a daily life routine, with occasional passion with one another on the side.

Jeff and Maria's first month of marriage was quite the opposite; they had settled into their daily life routine right off the bat, once they had gotten more comfortable with the idea of being together. As for their passion on the side, it mainly consisted of them going clubbing with their fellow wrestlers after the show. There was no passion in the sexual sense whatsoever.

One thing that had unnerved Maria a little was both she and Jeff had a long break coming up, which they intended to use to visit each other's families officially. Maria's parents and Jeff's father had not been too happy when their children informed them of the "good" news. So the couple decided to wait awhile and let things cool down before seeing their relations in person.

She was interrupted from her thoughts when Jeff stopped singing and the shower turned off. A few minutes later, Jeff emerged from the bathroom, with a towel wrapped around his waist and his wet hair drooping around his shoulders. She had to admit he looked rather hot like that but CM looked handsome fresh out of the shower as well.

"Bravo!" Maria clapped cheerily. "Another fine shower concert."

Jeff laughed and blushed a little. "Oh hey… I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

Maria smiled back at him. "Yeah, but you make a very nice alarm clock."

"Really?" Jeff chuckled. "If you want, you can use the bathroom while I get dressed."

"Thanks!" Maria picked up the clothes she was going to wear for the show and headed into the bathroom.

After a nice shower, Maria stepped out and wrapped a towel around herself. Just then Jeff knocked on the door.

"Maria can I come in? I just need to touch up my hair color,"

Maria quickly secured the towel around herself before opening the door. A month ago, she would have insisted he wait till she was completely done and dressed, but she as she became more comfortable with his presence as long as she was covered, it was okay.

"Want some help?" she asked as he came in and set down a bag of hair treating supplies on the counter.

"Nah. I've got it covered." He grinned, putting on some latex gloves to protect his hands from the dye.

"Okay." She smiled back, and grabbing another towel, she began squeezing some of the excess water out of her hair. "Will I be in your way if I use my blow dryer in here?"

He shook his head as he picked up the blue dye.

"Thanks." She plugged in the hair dryer and started drying her hair. Unconsciously, she began humming the tune Jeff had been singing before. After some drying, while her hair is still a little damp, Maria grabbed her curling iron and started curling her hair. She looked over at Jeff who was still working on touching up the color of his hair, and chuckled at him.

"What?" Jeff quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Oh I was just thinking it's kind of nice to be around a guy who spends almost as much time on his hair as I do." She giggled.

And it was nice. CM would always be a little impatient with her, due to the amount of time it took for her to make herself into the image of what a WWE diva should look like. The showering, the styling, the polish, the make-up, all things CM Punk never had had to worry about, except maybe the showering. Jeff on the other hand required all of these things to keep himself "the rainbow-haired warrior".

Jeff laughed. "Hey, Maria, when we get done with our hair, could you help me paint my nails?"

She looked at him, a little surprised and a little amused.

"I'm serious," Jeff said. "I'll paint yours in return."

"Sure," Maria agreed, suppressing the urge to giggle. In truth it was a convenient idea. It was easier to have someone else paint your nails, since you didn't have to switch hands with the brush. "You've got a deal." She unplugged the curling iron, before turning to him and, fluffing out her new curls. "How does it look?"

"Soft and silky. The kind of hair that makes everyone want to dig their hands in it," Jeff replied, putting the last touches on his own hair.

After he finished with his hair, Maria pulled out all her different nail polish colors. Jeff had quite a collection himself too. He had black as a base, then also had a gradient range of blues, purples, and for a little flair, he had a single bottle of lime green nail polish.

Maria chuckled quietly over the assortment Jeff spread out before them. "How do you want me to do this?"

"Something to match my hair maybe?" he said, taking of the latex gloves and, sitting down.

"Okay," she said thoughtfully. "I think I'll go dark at cuticles and light at the tips."

"Sounds good." He held out his hands to her. "All right, I leave my nails in your capable hands."

"So after I do your nails, shall we pick out eyeliner next?" Maria teased.

"I don't think I could pull off eye liner very well." Jeff laughed. "After all I'm not David Bowie or the Undertaker."

"I think Taker's the only tough guy I know who can." Maria laughed with him.

"No kidding..." Jeff agreed, shaking his head. "He's one of those guys that has the look and presence that even if you dressed him up like Carson from "queer eye", Taker would still look like the epitome of masculinity."

Maria nodded. "Exactly, because you know he'd kick your ass in a minute if you dared say otherwise."

"Right, I think the best example was at Wrestlemania XIV when he fought Kane. Taker came out in his full Lord of Darkness regalia robe, but I swear to god it looked like a gothic dress. And he still pulled it off. I mean no fan in that stadium was thinking 'Is taker wearing a dress?' No! They were thinking 'Oh my god! It's the Lord of Motherfukin' Darkness!'"

"I know!"

"And yet, he's not man enough to wear nail polish," Jeff smirked.

Maria giggled. "I guess even the Undertaker has his limits."

"Yup."

"So what do you think?" Maria held up his hands.

Jeff smiled broadly. "Cool, I like the dark with neon green at the tips."

Maria beamed at him. "Thanks! You know if I never became a diva, I was seriously thinking of opening up a nail salon with my cousin."

"Really? Well with this quality work, I'd come and get my nails done for special occasions like Wrestlemania."

"You're too sweet," Maria said, now holding out her hands. "Hopefully you can return the favor."

"I'd be glad too…"

Jeff had done a beautiful job on her nails, utilizing pink and silver to match her outfit. (This line is better here)

000

The RAW event had gone well, Maria had accompanied Jeff to the ring while he took on Shelton Benjamin to help jumpstart his climb to a World title shot. Jeff looked awesome as he nailed a swanton bomb for the win. In return, Jeff accompanied Maria to her match against Jillian, and sat in on the commentary. After Jillian botched one of her moves, Maria took advantage and used her bulldog finishing move for the win.

After the show, several of the superstars, including Jeff and Maria, went clubbing. The first club they came to was quite large and elaborate. It had a main dance floor, with several smaller dance floors elevated above the main one.

Shortly after arriving, Maria spotted a group of her fellow divas having drinks at one of the tables. Jeff glanced in the direction she was looking in, and got the hint that she wanted to join them.

"Hey, you can g join them if you want to." Jeff motioned to the girls. "I'm going to go hit the dance floor."

"Okay." Maria nodded and bounced over to join her girlfriends.

"Hey there," Candice greeted her. "How's married life?"

"It's all right I guess." Maria shrugged.

"Just all right?" Beth Phoenix quirked an eyebrow at her. "What, Jeff Hardy not turning out to be the man of your dreams?"

Maria sighed. "He's really nice and fun to be with most of the time." She looked over at Jeff, who was dancing on one of the elevated dance floors like a wild man. "I don't know... it's just that the way he dances and dresses is so… weird…"

"Oh, it's just Jeff being himself," Mickie James said in young Hardy's defense. "Don't let it embarrass you."

"I know…" Maria sighed. "But sometimes I wish he'd kind of tone it down, I mean in the ring it's one thing, but in public…"

"I don't blame Maria for being embarrassed," Brooke wrinkled her nose, as she looked in Jeff's direction.

"Weird doesn't begin to describe him." Candice laughed, though it was in a soft tone to indicate it was a good-natured remark. "Still, there's got to be something there or else you wouldn't have married him, right, Maria?"

"Yeah, what made you throw CM Punk over for him?" Brooke pressed, dying of curiosity. The dumping of CM Punk by Maria in favor of Jeff Hardy was the big talk of the ECW locker room.

"He must be dynamite in the sack, then," Kelly Kelly giggled, said as she popped her martini olive into her mouth.

"Maybe it was the hypnotic gyrating of his hips that drew her in," Candice chuckled.

"I know I'm enjoying watching that gyrating from where I'm sitting." Layla bobbed her eyebrows seductively as she watched Jeff dance.

Maria bristled slightly at the thought of the other girls watching her husband's gyrating hips. Then caught her self, wondering why she was so angry at the girls for watching Jeff's hips, they had as much right to watch him as she did, right?

"Come on, you guys I'm sure there's more to their relationship than that," Mickie spoke up. "Right, Maria?"

Maria had the expression on her face of Bambi caught in the headlights. "Well… He's really sweet once you get to know him. And ummm... Every morning I wake up to a beautiful concert. He sings in the shower really well." She smiled.

"Awe... that's sooo cute!!" Kelly Kelly squealed. "What other adorable things does he do?"

Maria shrugged. "He paints my nails nicely."

She held out her hand to display his handiwork. All of the girls gathered around, a little shocked that a guy had done that.

"Hmm, I think he's more sensitive and feminine than I am." Beth chuckled, taking another gulp of her martini. (hehehe!!)

"No argument there, Beth," Candice teased, earning herself a glare from the glamazon.

"Watch it, Toothpick," Beth gently elbowed the former women's champion.

At the end of the song Jeff stopped dancing for a few seconds, looked over at Maria and waved at her.

Maria waved sheepishly back a little, before burying her head in her hands. "Someone kill me now…"

"Oh, but you too are so cute together!" Kelly Kelly prodded her.

"And this from a girl who likes big, hairy men, with missing teeth," Brooke rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, and Balls Mahoney couldn't even paint nails." Layla nodded.

"Hey, Balls is nice, he has other things…" Kelly Kelly protested, defending the man she currently had a crush on.

"Guys, can we just stop talking for a while?" Maria groaned, gripping her head, tired of all the bickering.

"Here, here," Beth agreed, finishing her drink.

"Yeah, let's do some dancing," Mickie, finished her drink as well.

The girls all nodded and headed out onto the lower main dance floor. Maria tried carefully to position her self out of visual range of Jeff, hoping he would not see them and come over and dance near them.

Everything went well for a couple of songs until one point when Kelly did a fancy high kick for a dance move and her shoe came off and hit poor Maria in the side of the head. The dark haired diva fell over out cold.

In the tradition of a knight in shining armor, Jeff practically leaped off the elevated dance floor and was at Maria's side in a matter of seconds. He carefully picked Maria up and followed a security guard into a room at the back of the club with the other worried divas following behind.

The young Hardy carefully laid her down on one of the couches and the security guard handed him an ice pack. Apparently this was not the first time this kind of thing happened.

"Oh my god, oh my god! Maria I'm so sorry," Kelly panicked. "Should we call 911?"

"Calm down it may not be that bad," Mickie said.

"But if it's a concussion we have to get her conscious," Candice said worriedly.

Beth stepped in between the girls and Jeff and Maria. "I think it would help if you would give them some space." The glamazon herded them back a few steps.

A few minutes later, Maria opened her eyes to see Jeff's face close to hers. In one hand he held an ice pack to the sore spot on her held, while is other hand gently stroked her hair.

"Jeff…?" she murmured, a little dazed.

"Sssh... lay still," Jeff whispered. "You got hit in the head with a flying shoe."

"Oh, Maria, you should have seen Jeff before," Candice came over and knelt down beside them. "He was like a knight in shining armor. When he saw you fall over, he practically leaped off the stage and bounded over to make sure you were okay."

Maria briefly looked over at Candice before gazing back at Jeff, a smile lighting up her face. "You did? That's so sweet." She reached out and gently touched his face.

Jeff blushed a little as her hand caressed his cheek. "It was nothing, no trouble at all."

A disappointed look crossed Maria's face. It meant so much to her that Jeff had rushed to her side when she was in trouble, but it hurt that it didn't seem to mean as much to him as it did to her.

This look was not lost on Jeff; he furrowed his brow in concern. "You okay? Is your head hurting more?"

She looked away from him. "No, I'm okay."

Jeff looked at her, more confused than ever. One minute she was caressing his face ad calling him sweet and, the next she was giving him the cold shoulder. Perhaps the blow to her head had affected her worse than he thought.

Luckily Candice was there to notice that Jeff, like most men, was not very adept at catching on to subtle womanly nuances. "Oh cheer up, Maria, I don't think Jeff meant it the way you think he meant it."

"Meant what?" Jeff looked at them quizzically.

Candice sighed. "Jeff, Maria just misunderstood what you said before and you upset her. It's one thing to save your tag team partner's ass and say it was nothing when he thanks you for it, but it's a whole other thing to tell your wife that." She grinned thoughtfully and continued. "If my daddy knew that, Mom wouldn't get half the special 'just because' bouquets she got over the years. Remember that as the guy, you're always wrong even if you're right. Now go kiss your wife and make up."

Apparently though Candice understood what was going on, she could not translate it into terms Jeff could understand, for the rainbow-haired warrior looked at her like everything she just said went completely over his head.

Beth Phoenix on the other hand seemed to know how to translate a woman's thought process into words a man could understand.

"Hardy, it goes like this," The glamazon started. "What Candice was trying to say before was, you running to Maria's side like Sir Galahad with rainbow hair, meant a lot to Maria. So when you said 'there was nothing to it,' she thought it meant nothing to you, and that upset her, because she's your wife and saving her should mean more to you than saving your tag-team partner. Did that stick at all?"

Jeff's eyes widened a little as the realization hit him. "Yeah?" He looked back down at Maria. "But you know, you mean a lot to me..." he said softly, realizing with surprise he had just said that out loud.

"I do?" She smiled, her eyes welling up with tears.

"Yeah, I was really scared there when I saw you fall over," Jeff said in earnest.

Maria was still a bit woozy and delirious, but she still managed to sit up and wrap her arms around Jeff's neck. She pulled his face closer to hers and kissed him tenderly and fully on the lips. Jeff was a little startled at first by this forwardness, but he quickly melted into the kiss. It was the first real kiss they both were aware of sharing.

"Awe!! Isn't that cute?" Candice gushed a little.

"Yeah, I'd say they made up all right." Beth grinned.

When Jeff and Maria had finished kissing, he rainbow-haired warrior carefully picked her up. "All right now, why don't we get you over to the ER, and have your head checked out."

"It's okay, Jeff," she murmured, relaxing against him. "I've had worse blows to the head in the ring."

Jeff patted her shoulder reassuringly. "I know, but better safe than sorry right?"

"All right, Sir Galahad, take me away." She giggled, resting her head on his shoulder.

After a trip to the emergency room and a confirmation from a doctor that Maria did not have a concussion Jeff took her back to the hotel. By this time, Maria was sleeping peacefully in his arms, so he carefully set her down on one of the hotel beds, He rummaged through her bags and found her satin pajamas. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that he was her husband and he had no ill intentions on his mind. He carefully slipped off her dress, allowing himself a little bit of an eyeful of his young wife, before slipping the pajama top on her, followed quickly by the bottoms.

When he had finished dressing her, he gently tucked her in. On impulse, as if it were perfectly natural for him, he leaned down and tenderly kissed her on the forehead, before retreating to his own bed for some much needed sleep.

He stripped down to his boxers and slipped under the covers. He lay there for a few moments just thinking about the woman sleeping in the other bed, his wife. He lightly ran his fingers across his lips remembering the feel of her soft skin against them, and the real kiss they had shared earlier. He felt a strange warmth flare up deep in his chest, like a small candle being lit. It felt good. Even though he could not identify the feeling, he hoped it would not go away anytime soon…

000

_Hmm….things seem to be developing nicely between the two lovebirds…._


	10. Any Way You Want Me, That's How I'll Be

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

"_I'll be a strong as a mountain,_

_Or weak as a willow tree,_

_Anyway you want me,_

_That's how I will be. _

_I'll be a tame as a baby,_

_Or wild as the raging sea,_

_Anyway you want me,_

_That's how I will be. _

_In your hand my heart is clay,_

_To take a mold as you may._

_I'm what you make me, you've only to take me,_

_And in your arms I will stay. _

_I'll be a fool or a wise man,_

_My darling you hold the key,_

_Yes, anyway you want me,_

_That's how I will be,_

_I will be." _

_Elvis, "Any Way You Want Me (That's How I Will Be)"  
_

_000_

Only four months ago Maria Kanellis was merely just another diva to Jeff Hardy. One who had earned his friendship by once joining him in his crazy dance during his ring entrance.

Friendship and nothing more.

Then came that fateful night in Vegas three months ago, when he and Maria got themselves plastered, and with the help of an equally plastered Edge, Randy Orton, and Ken Kennedy, got themselves married. By decree of Vince McMahon, they had to stay together as husband and wife for a year, and at least pretend to love each other while they were in the public eye.

Jeff and Maria did just that. When they appeared in public together they were the image newlyweds in love. When they were alone they tended to go back to just being friends. After two months they had become quite good at it; enough to fool their parents and relations.

It was nerve wracking to say the least when they had to finally go and visit their respective families. Gilbert Hardy's attitude seemed to be that while he was not surprised Jeff had went ahead and got married, he was not in the least bit happy about it. So he adopted a rather aloof demeanor, one of just tolerating Maria's presence on his son's arm than actually welcoming it.

When it came to finally visiting Maria's parents, they were all smiles and shook Jeff's hand. However, after a few minutes one could easily tell that the discomfiture they felt and disapproval of the rainbow-haired man who had dared married their daughter was evident in their eyes, betraying those friendly smiles.

All in all both meetings went as well as could be expected in the circumstances. Nonetheless, Maria and Jeff looked forward to getting back on the road for the WWE and allow the whole situation sink in with their families, before going to visit again.

As they entered the third month of their marriage, Jeff slowly began to recognize that his "pretended" motions of marriage, didn't feel so pretend anymore. Every time he kissed her, whether it be a kiss on the lips or the cheek he would feel his heart flutter with a quiet excitement, and a sweet warmth flair up deep in his chest.

He began kissing her on the cheek on a regular basis, whether they were in public or private, and she didn't seem to mind. They had never shared a real deep kiss since that night at the club and he missed feel of her warm, soft lips on his for longer than a split second peck. Still, he was just satisfied being near her.

As the middle of the third month came, both Jeff and Maria made a second trip to see their families, this time separately. When he came home to see his dad, he was surprised to find the elder Hardy was disappointed that Maria had not come along with Jeff this time.

When Jeff asked his father about this sudden change of attitude toward Maria, Gilbert simply answered, "She's done you good, son."

Once Gilbert had said it, Jeff realized it. She had done him good; he generally felt happier everyday. He was better at keeping up with tedious responsibilities like not procrastinating on bills or putting off doing the household chores at home. And nothing made you feel more happy and well off than the feeling of soft hands kneeding the soreness out of your back after a long hard wrestling match.

The more days that passed, the more he felt that warm feeling growing in his heart whenever he was near her. The thing he couldn't put his finger on was exactly what this warm feeling was…

"Hello, Earth to Itchweed," Matt waved a hand in front of his little brother's face.

The two brothers were walking around New York City, looking for the place where they were going to meet Maria and Ashley for lunch. Jeff had been staring into the distance for the last ten minutes and Matt was beginning to wonder what was tying up Jeff's mind so.

"Huh?" Jeff snapped out of his reverie.

Matt quirked a curious eyebrow at him. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Oh, I was just thinking about Maria…" Jeff murmured.

Matt chuckled. "Seems like that's all that's on your mind lately."

"What do you mean?" Jeff furrowed his brow at his older brother.

"It seems like anything and everything makes you think of or reminds you of Maria." Matt gave his little brother a knowing smirk.

Jeff pondered the statement. It was true; Maria always seemed to be on his mind. If not in his immediate thought process, then always a whisper at the back of his mind. Whether he was thinking about travel plans and room arrangements for the two of them, to just looking at a flower and remembering her bright smile.

"Yeah, I guess I do…" Jeff admitted.

"Aww…I think my little baby brother's in love," the older Hardy teased, not really taking his own words seriously.

"What…?" The younger Hardy looked at his brother as if he were crazy.

Matt only laughed at his little brother's surprised expression, which in turn made Jeff groan and roll his eyes as he realized his bother was just giving him a hard time.

"There they are," Matt managed to calm his laughter as he spotted their two girls, sitting at a table outside the café, up ahead.

"Good. Do I look okay?" Jeff looked down at his sports jersey and baggy Goth pants.

"Yeah…Well, it's not something I'd wear in New York," Matt chuckled. "But it's a good look for you."

"Come on, be serious." Jeff frowned, wanting an honest answer from his brother.

Now it was Matt's turn to look at his brother like he was crazy. "Since when do you care so much?"

"Well…" Jeff started, and realized he never really cared about such things before. Maybe on a special occasion, but just going out to lunch? Never. "I just wanted to look good for Maria."

Matt's eyes widened a little in shock. The two Hardys looked at each other, Jeff's eyes widening as well.

"Oh my god," Jeff murmured. "You were right… I am in love…"

"Now, Jeff…" Matt began, not really believing his words from before.

"No, it's true…" Jeff put his hand on the wall of a near by building, to steady himself. "I can't get her out of my mind… I worry about what wear around her….Matt, I've never done that over any other woman before…"

Matt thought about it and slowly nodded. Sure, Jeff had had relationships in the past, Beth Britt, Trish Stratus, whom he cared for very much, but not to the point that made him want to change himself, appearance or otherwise.

"It's true… I am totally, insanely, butt-crazy in love with Maria," Jeff said, looking over at Maria and Ashley, sitting not far away.

Matt nodded. "Sounds like you are…It's not like you to be so self conscious."

Jeff smiled a little, feeling relieved that he finally had an answer to all of those feelings he had had when he was around Maria. He was in love, truly in love. Suddenly, he frowned as he realized he had no idea how Maria felt about him. After all, she had been tied emotionally to CM Punk before they had gotten together. Had her feelings toward Jeff hardy changed since then, as his feelings changed for her?

"Now what do I do, Matt?" Jeff looked at his brother worriedly. "I love her...but how do I tell her...? 'I love you' are three very dangerous little words…"

Matt frowned contemplatively and looked down at the ground. "Yeah, those are dangerous words indeed…"

Jeff leaned against the building wall and sighed wearily.

Suddenly, Matt's head snapped up as a light bulb went on in his head. "Instead of telling her that you love her, why not just show her that you love her?" He patted Jeff's shoulder, smiling confidently. "And let her figure it out for herself."

"I admit it, Matt, you are brilliant." Jeff grinned. "And I think I know just how to do it…"

"Yeah?" Matt was eager to hear what his little brother had in mind.

"Well, you know that big Valentines Day opera outing that everyone is going to...?"

Matt nodded. "Oh yeah, I still have to get Ashley a present."

"Well I'm going to take Maria to that, and I'm going to try and be the Prince Charming!"

"Nice!" The older Hardy's grin broadened.

"Except, there's one problem…" Jeff deflated a little.

Matt raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I have no 'Prince Charming' fashion sense…" The younger Hardy sighed in defeat.

"Hmmm…" Matt murmured thoughtfully, clapping his hands as an idea came. "I know just who you should see about that…"

"Who?"

"You'll see…"

000

Jeff took a deep breath and knocked on the door of the hotel room in which Dave Batista, and the Nature Boy, Ric Flair, were staying. Jeff knew he would need help in sprucing himself up to trendy standards in time for the opera on Saturday , so on Matt's recommendation he went to pay The Animal a visit.

Batista was always a snappy dresser. Whenever The Animal was not dressed in his ring attire, he was dressed in sleek, snazzy suits. It wasn't really Jeff's style; his idea of formal was an untucked collared shirt and a tie, and occasionally a nice blazer. So for a special outing to the opera, he really needed to kick it up a notch to impress Maria and her fellow divas, hence why he desperately needed the help in trying dress to impress.

Ever since he had realized that he was in love with Maria, he had wanted to go that extra mile to show her and everyone else that he was good enough for her. Mainly so she would not have to suffer the "behind-the-back" whispers of being married to the WWE's "resident weirdo". And if that meant giving his personal style up for awhile, then so be it.

Jeff nearly jumped when the door opened to reveal Batista, standing there.

"Um…Batista …" Jeff shifted uncomfortably, trying to find the right way to phrase his request. "I know this is going to sound like a weird request but…"

"Something weird from you? Never…" Batista grinned teasingly.

Jeff snorted in amusement. "Look, you know the big opera event coming up for Valentines Day?"

"Oh yeah," Batista's grin turned a little more wistful. "I'm taking Beth Phoenix. The Glamazon. I am one lucky man."

"Yeah…about that …I was wondering if you could help me…" Jeff got fed up and decided to just blurt it out. "I need a formal make-over, there I said it."

Batista's eyebrows shot up and the rest of his face went blank. Without a word he grabbed Jeff's arm and jerked him into the room.

"Hey, Ric!" Batista shouted toward the bathroom.

"What?" the Nature Boy called from behind the bathroom door. "I'm kind of busy in here, Dave!"

"Jeff Hardy wants us to help him get a formal makeover!" Batista called back, a slight chuckle in his voice. This made Jeff bury his face in his hands in embarrassment. He wished he had never knocked on the door, now they were going to make fun of him.

An eerie silence settled around the bathroom, then there was rush of hustling and bustling and a few seconds later Ric Flair burst out dressed in one of his infamous feathered ring robes.

"Wooo!" The Nature Boy clapped his hands together in excitement. "It's about time. I have been waiting for the time to get my hands on you and clean you up!"

"Okay…" Jeff eyed Flair warily, "That's figurative right?"

"Ease up, Ric," Batista gently pulled the enthusiastic legend away from the young Hardy, "I think you're scaring him."

"Sorry, Jeff." Ric laughed. "It's figurative of course. Now what kind of makeover are we looking for?"

Jeff looked down at his twiddling thumbs. "It's for the opera; I wanna look good for Maria."

"Aww, isn't that cute." Flair smiled and looked at Batista who nodded in agreement. "Now get up, and let's see what we got to work with here."

Jeff got up and held out his arms like a manikin. Ric made a motion with his hand that Jeff should turn around. Jeff gave him a "why am I doing this?" look, but complied. Flair and Batista looked the young Hardy over and realized this was going to be harder than they thought. Jeff was currently dressed in a navy-blue baseball jersey over a black long sleeved pull over, his usual black baggy cargo pants. He wore a head band to hold back his hair, which was currently colored in a gradient from sky blue to indigo, and tied in a messy knot at the back of his head, and they couldn't forget the painted finger nails.

"This is going to be a lot of work…" Batista shook his head, already looking tired.

"Yeah." Flair nodded in agreement. "I think we're going to have to call for reinforcements."

Ric pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. While waiting for the person to pick up on the other line, he gave Jeff an "I've got you covered" wink.

Jeff smiled a little nervously back.

"Hey, buddy!" Ric greeted the other person on the line. "How's the leg? Good, good… Look Batista and I have someone who has sought our vast knowledge of how to look good. Unfortunately, it's a bigger job that we thought…… How big….? It's Jeff Hardy…..yeah, I told ya'…..Okay….We gotta do something about his hair too, it's a mess…. All right…yeah, we'll get him to the salon and we'll meet you later….all right thanks, buddy…" Flair hung up, and clapped his hands. "You're all set, Jeff!"

"Yeah? Where are we going?" Jeff asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Let me get dressed, we'll hop in the car and you'll find out."

000

After Ric was fully dressed, he and Batista dragged Jeff to their rental car and into a salon not far away. Ric instructed the hairdresser to get all of the leftover dye out of Jeff's hair and repair the dye and bleach damaged hair as much as possible.

The stylist pulled Jeff's hair out of the knot he had it in and looked at it as if Ric had just asked him to build a hundred story skyscraper in the next two hours.

Actually, it was two and a half hours of washing and, treating and, re-washing, conditioning and, drying, before they finally removed all of the artificial color from Jeff's hair and made it all smooth and manageable again.

"So! How do you feel?" Ric grinned, patting Jeff on the back.

"Like my scalp's been torn from my head," Jeff groaned wearily. "At least my hair looks nice."

"Remember, Jeff, No pain, no gain," Batista tried to motivate him.

"Right, right…" Jeff sighed wearily, reminding himself that he was doing this for Maria.

"Good." Ric helped the young Hardy out of the salon chair. "Now, let's get you to your next appointment."

"We're not done?" Jeff looked at him in worried disbelief.

Ric shook his head. "Nope, we gotta get those nails of yours fixed."

"What's wrong with them?" Jeff looked down at his hands.

"They're blue, Jeff," Batista said in a tone of voice that left no room for questioning or argument.

"Yeah…I guess you're right…" Jeff murmured slowly, still looking down at his hands. It was hard to picture them completely clean and, staying that way.

"Don't worry, it's not as bad as the hair job," Batista offered some real words of comfort.

"Better not be..." Jeff grumbled. "I had to bite on my fist for the past 2 hours just to prevent myself from screaming and crying, while my scalp seemed to be systematically tortured."

"Well as they say, 'pain his beauty'," Ric put an arm around Jeff's shoulders and lead him toward the nail salon.

Jeff could only laugh nervously.

After another half-hour his nails were squeaky clean. However, looking at his plain nails and hair, Jeff felt strangely "naked" without his signature colors. He repeated his mantra that it was all for Maria and that it would be worth it. At least it wasn't nearly as painful as his hair treatment; his scalp was still throbbing from that. Still, the make-over was not yet over. As soon as his nails were done, Batista and Flair dragged Jeff to the suit store to get him dressed for success.

It was there that Jeff discovered who the" reinforcements" Ric had called in earlier were. At the entrance to the suit shop stood none other than Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

"Oh… my… God…" Jeff moaned softly, already feeling humiliated.

"Hey, there's our victim," Triple H grinned like a Cheshire cat.

Jeff smiled nervously.

"Hunter, remind me again why I'm here…" HBK looked over his fellow DX member.

"I need an impartial judge," The Game shrugged, before turning his attention back to Jeff. "Now, I've picked out some stuff for you to try on." He led Jeff over to a couple racks of different suits. "Let's get started, shall we?"

Jeff glanced at the racks of suits, looking like he might faint right then and there. "You want me to try them _all _on…"

"Yup!" Hunter patted him on the back. "It's the only way we'll know for sure which one is right for you."

This is for Maria… Jeff sighed resignedly, "Okay, which one should I start with?"

"How about this one?" Triple H pulled out a traditional looking tuxedo. "Always good to start with the classics."

Jeff could already tell he was not going to look good in if, but decided to humor them. After all, they were just trying to help…

About two hours and fifty suits later, there were only two suits left including the one Jeff wore as he came out of the dressing room with. By this time Batista had run out and picked them up some sandwiches and coffee, to help the time pass while they graded Jeff's clothing.

"How about this one?" Jeff asked, a little out of breath now he was even more exhausted than when they began. He longed to drink some of that coffee.

"No, I don't like that one either." Ric waved hand dismissively.

"Not feeling it." Triple H returned to his sandwich, as both Shawn and Batista shook their heads disapprovingly at what Jeff was wearing.

"Oh come on!" Jeff snapped, frustration starting to overcome the exhaustion. "You're kidding me?! That's what you said about all the previous ones! And this is the last suit on the rack!"

"No, there's one more," Hunter motioned to the last suit on the rack.

Jeff half sighed, half groaned as he went and grabbed the last suit from the rack. "Okay, but this is the last one!" He stormed back toward the dressing rooms. After a few minutes of changing, he came back out. "Well…?"

"Woo! That's the one we're looking for!" Ric clapped his hands triumphantly.

"Nice," Batista gave him the thumbs up, while HBK nodded in approval.

Triple H chuckled. "Yup, I knew that one was going to be the one right from the beginning."

The young Hardy had the sudden urge to punch the Cerebral Assassin in the face, but managed to keep his last ounce of control. "If you this was going to be winner from the start why didn't you have me try it on first?"

"I wanted to save the best for last," Hunter's Cheshire cat grin returned again.

"All right, Cinderella, it looks like you're ready for the ball!" Ric started ushering Jeff back towards the dressing room, so the young Hardy could get back into his regular clothes.

While Jeff was changing, the other men compared notes on how Jeff looked.

"Woo! Boys, I think we did it," Ric came back to join the group.

"That was a good pick, Hunter," Batista nodded calmly.

"Yeah. He cleans up well, doesn't he?" Triple H said thoughtfully. "But then he had our expert help so it's no surprise."

The three men looked over at Shawn who was being uncharacteristically silent. He had a half brooding expression on his face.

"Shawn?" Hunter looked sideways at his friend. "What do you think?"

"He looks like a tiger who's been stripped of all his stripes," Shawn said plainly.

Trip H and Ric looked at him quizzically, while Batista nodded, seeming to understand what Shawn was getting at.

"Don't get me wrong, you guys did a good job on him, he looks good." Shawn shrugged. "A tiger without it's stripes is still a beautiful creature, but it has lost it's unique spark that separated him from the other cats."

The other men raised their eyebrows and nodded a little, acknowledging that Shawn did have a valid point. For Jeff to win approval, the price might be his individuality.

HBK sighed and looked over at Jeff's dressing room. "I just hope she's worth it…"

_000_

_How high a price is it? And will it all be worth it? Find out in the next chapter, the night of the opera…_


	11. I Want You With Me

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

_I'll be the ruler of this whole wide world  
If you will only say you'll be my girl  
I want you with me in everything I do  
You know I need you baby, I'm in love with you_

- Elvis Presley, _"I Want You With Me"_

000

It was the night of the opera and everyone was getting ready. The whole WWE "Night at the Opera" for Valentines Day idea was cooked up by Mr. McMahon when he was trying to figure out a new promotional thing to improve the WWE's image. He wanted to show that the WWE employees were not just a bunch of drugged up muscle heads. While pondering ideas, he passed Batista in the hallway way. The Animal was listening to his ipod rather loudly, and when the chairman asked him about it, Batista answered that it was Luciano Pavarotti singing a segment from the opera "La Boehme". Then a light bulb went on in McMahon's head. Over Valentines Day the WWE would be performing in New York, at the same time The Metropolitan Opera house would be showcasing famous love scenes from various opera's in honor of the love holiday.

And the rest was history…

However, for Jeff Hardy it was only the beginning and he was already getting cold feet. In fact he wasn't sure if he even had the nerve to step out of the bathroom.

"I don't think I can do this…." Jeff whispered to Ric Flair who was fussing over him to make sure everything was perfect.

"What are you talking about? You look great!" Ric patted him on the shoulders.

"Thanks…" Jeff looked at himself long and hard in the mirror, not sure if he liked what he saw.

Satisfied with his work, Ric stepped out of the bathroom and into the hotel room where Batista and Matt Hardy were waiting.

"Well? How does he look?" the older Hardy asked, he had yet to see the "new" Jeff all dressed up.

"Boys, I think we've done it," Ric clapped his hands together excitedly. "Gentlemen, I present to you the new and improved Jeff Hardy."

After a few moments' hesitation Jeff nervously stepped out of the bathroom. He was wearing a long white dress suit that went down to just below his knees. There were white pants to match, a light grey almost silver colored collared shirt underneath, and a white tie. His hair was a normal color without a trace of dye and tied into an elegant knot on the back of his head. Last, but not least his finger nails were clean and clear.

Matt's jaw dropped as he stared at his little brother in shock. If he hadn't been so stunned he would be applauding Ric's, Triple H's, and Batista's handiwork. Jeff looked the picture of a modern Prince Charming.

Unfortunately, Jeff misinterpreted Matt's look of shock in awe, for shock in disgust. And thus the younger Hardy made a retreat for the bathroom again. "Oh my god you hate it!"

"Now look what you did!" Ric snapped at Matt.

"Oh shit!" Matt ran over to the bathroom door and tried to open it, but it was locked. "Jeff, you got it all wrong, that's a 'shock and awe' look not a 'shock and disgust' look! You look great! I can't believe Ric and Hunter and Dave actually did it!"

"If even you can't believe it, Matt, then no one else will! I'll just be a big joke! A fake! Maria's never going to look at me again!" Jeff poured out all of his frustrations through the door.

Matt couldn't believe it; he'd never ever seen Jeff so insecure about himself before. It was then that the older Hardy realized that Jeff was not as oblivious to the locker room whispers about him and Maria as everyone thought. Just the opposite, he was well aware that he had been called a "freak" a "weirdo" a "stoner" before, but these names did not faze him. But now they were an embarrassment to the woman he loved, and that was why he was trying so hard to dress to impress. Not only to impress Maria, but their peers as well.

"Jeff, I…" Matt planned out his words carefully. This was a pivotal moment, the wrong message could shatter what little self confidence Jeff had right now. "I didn't believe that they could do it before I saw you, now I am a believer. You made me a believer, man." Matt sighed when Jeff did not respond. "Fine, how about we get a second opinion, better yet, a woman's opinion."

"You wouldn't dare!" Jeff shouted in alarm.

"Don't worry it's just going to be Ashley, not your lady love," Matt assured him as he pulled out his cell phone. "If Ashley doesn't believe it, then you don't have to go, we'll say you're sick or something."

"Okay…" Jeff agreed softly.

Matt had Ashley's number on the speed dial and was already ringing her up.

Ashley and Candice were already down in the main lobby waiting for their boys. For once the boys were keeping the women waiting. In truth, Matt of course was upstairs trying to give his brother a little self confidence; meanwhile John Cena was getting a last minute bouquet of pink roses for Candice.

The princess of punk heard her cell phone ring to the tune of Matt's WWE theme. "Hey, Matt… What? Your tie…? Are you kidding me? Okay, I'll be up there in a minute…"

She closed her cell phone let out an exasperated sigh.

"What happened?" Candice quirked a curious eyebrow at her.

"Oh my boy friend is being obsessive compulsive and wants me to come up and give and opinion on his tie…" Ashley answered dryly. "And he wants me to bring a friend as an impartial judge."

Candice rolled her eyes. "Men… And they complain that we take forever. I'd be happy to come up with you, but I need to wait for John…"

Ashley pursed her lips in thought, smirking a little slyly when she spotted Melina. "I think I know just the person…"

000

Matt waited anxiously for his girlfriend to arrive. Ric and Batista were also antsy as they knew their dates were waiting for them as well. Jeff was still holed up in the bathroom. There was unanimous sigh of relief when there was a knock at the door.

"Hey, Ashley," Matt greeted her while he opened the door a little. "Jeff, you can come out now, Ashley's here."

"Wait…" Ashley froze. "This is about Jeff?"

"Yeah," Matt lowered his voice so Jeff couldn't hear it in the bathroom. "He's kind of insecure about his outfit, and I need someone to convince him otherwise."

"Um…" Ashley tittered. "Then I don't think you're going to like who I picked as the impartial judge…"

There was a sharp intake of breath from all three men in the hotel room, when Ashley opened the door more to reveal Melina standing there.

"Hello," the diva greeted them with a smirk.

Batista quickly turned away from her and toward the window, Ric closed his eyes and shook his head, and Matt looked as if he had just been slapped in the face.

"Why the hell did you bring her?" the older Hardy hissed at Ashley.

"I thought this was about and your stupid tie!" Ashley hissed back.

Matt sighed in exasperation, "I only said that in case some one overheard our conversation on the phone."

Just then the bathroom door opened and Jeff shyly entered the room. The minute he saw Melina, he looked like he wanted to run right back into the bathroom, and he might have, if Batista had not gotten in the way.

"Well what do you think?" Jeff asked the two women nervously.

"You like great, Jeff!" Ashley beamed at him.

Everyone held bated breath as they waited for Melina's answer. It was well known that Melina held a particular dislike for the Hardys, particularly Jeff because of his rivalry with her boyfriend Johnny Nitro. In his vulnerable state Jeff might actually take her opinion to heart. This was a ripe moment for her to just tear into him and crush any confidence the younger Hardy had left.

However, at this moment it seemed Jeff looked so down and pathetic, even Melina's heart suddenly doubled in size out of pity. Honestly, Jeff looked like a puppy, who was to be kicked and knew it was coming.

Whatever the reason, Melina surprised everyone.

"Looking good Jeff," she said simply.

"Thanks." Jeff smiled, looking tremendously relieved. Even if it was a lie or just said out of pity it still felt good to hear that from one of his rivals.

"Well, I got to head back down, before Johnny gets impatient and Victoria chugs all of the champagne," Melina chuckled, before exiting the room.

Jeff took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay… Now I'm ready…"

000

Apparently, Jeff was not as ready as he thought. He was already starting to tremble nervously by the time they reached the ground floor. Unfortunately, they found they had taken the wrong elevator and ended up in one of the back lobbies of the hotel instead of the main one. All the more time for Jeff to sit and stew, getting even more anxious while everyone discuss which way they needed to go.

"What's going on?"

Jeff nearly jumped when the Undertaker addressed him from behind. The younger Hardy turned around to face the phenom. "Oh hey, Taker. You look good. You taking Sara to the opera too?"

Taker's eyebrows shot up in surprise when he finally got a full look at the normalized Jeff. "Thanks and yes I am, and who are you and what have you done to Jeff Hardy?"

Jeff chuckled a little, grateful for the slight relief from the tension. "Heh. It's still me, just a different me."

"I can see that," Taker said looking him over. He noticed the younger Hardy was shaking a little. "You cold?"

"Oh, I'm just a little nervous I guess," Jeff tried to shrug it off.

"Why?"

Jeff looked down at his twiddling fingers. "Well, I'm not sure if I can pass off the new me."

"Why did you change in the first place?" Taker furrowed his brow.

"Because I want to look like I'm good enough to be with Maria," Jeff admitted honestly.

Taker sighed, and rolled his eyes, he'd heard this story many times over the years. He honestly pitied anyone in this situation; if not handled well it could end up in real heartache. On impulse he pulled out a single rose from the bouquet he had picked up for Sara.

"Here, this'll help," Taker handed the rose to Jeff. "Sure-fire woman pleaser. Unless she has allergies, and even then it's the thought that counts."

"Oh Thanks," Jeff said, taking the rose. "Though I made her a present to give to her later."

Taker shrugged. "Yeah, but it's always good to present something right off the bat."

Jeff nodded, chuckling a little bit. "I can't believe I'm getting dating advice from the Undertaker…"

"Just call it little words of experience…" Taker said simply, before walking over to the group, still discussing which way to go. "The main lobby is this way people."

Taker showed them the way, after rounding a few corners they came to the main lobby where everyone was gathered for a little Valentine's Day pre-opera champagne. Taker immediately went to seek out Sara, while Beth Phoenix came over to them.

Batista looked his date up and down. She was dressed in a strapless silver gown with a crystal choker around her neck. There were very few things that could make Batista's jaw drop; and the sight of Beth Phoenix was one of those things.

"What took you so long?" Beth smirked. "I didn't think the Animal needed that much grooming."

Batista regained his voice and laughed. "Nah, I was just helping one of my friends get ready."

"She's a pistol, Dave," Ric grinned. "Think you can handle her?"

"Hopefully, with a little luck she'll handle me," Batista wobbled his eyebrows suggestively at the Glamazon.

Beth let out an amused snort. "We'll just see if you're worth handling." She took his arm and led him to where the champagne was being served.

Meanwhile, Jeff finally spotted Maria drinking champagne with her friends, Victoria, Brooke, Layla, Kelly Kelly, Torrie Wilson and Candice. Normally it would have been an inviting sight, a group of beautiful women, with his princess waiting for him in the middle, but in this situation they looked like a pack of hungry wolves, ready to pounce on him with their judgmental jibes.

Maria looked gorgeous, all decked out in a lavender dress. The jeweled straps had wisps of lavender feathers coming out from them. The lace up bodice was intricately decorated with delicate floral patterns, and the skirt had layer upon layer of lavender tulle embellished around the edges with the same floral pattern as the bodice.

Jeff couldn't stop staring; she was the absolute image of a real princess.

He felt Matt push gently against his back and saw his older brother mouth, "go on" encouragingly. Jeff took a deep breath and steeled himself, before striding over to the girls.

"Hey, Maria…" he said shyly.

Maria turned around and stood there, stunned, as did all of the girls. In fact, Brooke almost choked on her gulp of champagne, at seeing the WWE's resident weirdo look like Prince Charming.

"Jeff…" Maria said, almost breathless. "You look amazing."

"Thanks," Jeff blushed a little, but at the same time felt like a little weight had been taken off his shoulders. _So far so good._ Just then he remembered the rose. "Oh uh, here. Happy Valentines Day." Jeff held out the single long stemmed red rose.

Maria took it, and beamed at him, wrapping her arms around Jeff's neck. She gave him a kiss on the lips. Stepping back from the embrace, she wrapped one arm around his and looked back at the girls, smiling smugly.

"Come on, Prince Charming," Maria grinned at him. "Let's go to the opera."

000

_Well everyone is off to the opera, so far so good for Jeff. The question is will Maria realize just how deep Jeff's love is? And if she does how will she react?_


	12. I Beg of You

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

"_You got me at your mercy  
Now that I'm in love with you  
So please don't take advantage  
Cause you know my love is true  
Darling please please love me too  
I beg of you…" _

-Elvis Presley, _"I Beg of You"_

000

Opera truly was the music of romance and on Valentine's Day every WWE superstar was feeling it. Triple H and his wife Stephanie McMahon could not help but squeeze each other's hands lovingly when one of the sopranos sang the aria "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Puccini's _Gianni Schicchi_. The character Lauretta sang to her father of her deep love for Rinuccio and not to send her away from him. It eerily paralleled Stephanie and Hunter's own struggles with Stephanie's father Vince Mcmahon.

Everyone seemed to sway in time to the passionate dance and song of Carmen's "Habanera." How love was like a wild bird that could not be captured, but could choose whose shoulder it would land on. The last piece before intermission was the infamous "Nessun Dorma," a song about a man, who if he revealed his name to the princess Turandot he would be executed. So in love was he with her that he promised to reveal his name on her lips for one kiss, even if it meant his death.

Indeed love was in the air, but Jeff seemed to be breathing it in more for Maria than she was for him, despite his best efforts.

"Oh my god, Jeff, wasn't that amazing?" Maria chatted excitedly as they stepped out of the theater for intermission. "I wish I could sing like that, they're so passionate, so beautiful."

"Yeah," Jeff nodded. "I have to say I'm getting turned on to opera, I'll have to add some tracks to my ipod."

"Oh wasn't the last piece so wonderful?" Maria said dreamily, "A man declaring his love, and that he'll reveal his name on the lips of his beloved, even if it means his death. How romantic! Why don't guys nowadays do stuff like that?"

"Maybe they do but just in more subtle ways," Jeff said quietly, frowning a little.

"Really? Like how?" Maria tilted her head curiously.

"Well," Jeff began hesitantly. "Maybe they do something they wouldn't normally do…"

"Yeah," Maria smiled shyly. "Like getting her a rose unexpectedly?"

Jeff sighed, a little bit of frustration edged into it. "Yeah, that can be one thing, but sometimes they do even more than that."

Maria pondered the question for a bit and giggled a little when she answered. "You mean like going to the latest chick flick with your girl instead of the new action/thriller film."

Jeff couldn't stop himself from laughing a little but quickly turned serious again. "Even more than that…"

"Ummm…" Maria leaned closer to him as she thought she might have figured out the hint he was getting at. "Going to the opera when it would be the last place go if given a choice."

"Well he likes the opera all right." Jeff sighed again and looked away. "It's just…"

"Just what…?" Maria prompted, looking genuinely perplexed since all of her guesses seemed to fall short.

"He's not sure he can be 'Prince Charming' all the time," Jeff murmured gently.

Maria frowned, still looking confused. "Why is that?"

Jeff looked back at her, some alarm on his face. He had not meant to say that out loud. "Um, I have to go to the bathroom."

Before Maria could even respond, Jeff took off at a brisk pace toward the men's room. The diva just stood and watched him go, wondering what she had said to make him so upset.

Jeff entered the men's lounge just outside the bathroom and slumped down into one of the couches, covering his head in his hands. His worst fears were being confirmed but in a very different way than he imagined. He thought if he played Prince Charming, something so different from himself, Maria might see how devoted he was to her. But after three and half hours of suffering in a salon chair and, picking out just the right clothes, and hiding in the bathroom, worrying if Maria liked it or not, it seemed like she did not even notice.

Even though he looked like Prince Charming, she was treating him no different than the Jeff Hardy, whom she hid her face from when he danced at the clubs, and wore his "unique" style of clothing and hair color around her in public. After all, every time he tried to hold her hand during the performance she would always slip it just out of his grasp, whenever he tried to lean a little closer too her she would lean away.

Then it occurred to him, maybe she was impressed, but now expected him to be like that all the time. Jeff was not sure if he could do it. He would do it in a heartbeat if he knew she really loved him back as much as if he loved her, but at this point in time he simply didn't know what to do. He felt like he was walking on eggshells the whole time and no doubt he would continue to do so if he kept up this Prince Charming charade. He hated nothing more than being in that type of situation where he had to watch his every move.

He began to wonder on a comment he had overheard Shawn Michaels make. _Is she worth it…? _

Right now, he didn't know…

Meanwhile, Maria decided to go to the bathroom herself. Inside the Ladies lounge she found a group of her fellow divas there adjusting their make-up.

"Oh my god, have you guys seen Jeff?" Kelly asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I almost didn't recognize him," Torrie said as she put on some more eyeliner. "If he wasn't married to Maria, I'd date him looking like that."

"Amen to that!" Kelly giggled.

"But if he wasn't married to Maria, he wouldn't be all dressed up like that," Victoria said plainly. "I think he's trying to impress her."

Maria felt as if the floor had just dropped out from under her. Jeff had changed himself, just for her…

Mickie James frowned a little. "Well, he must not be doing a very good job as she doesn't seem to be treating him any differently."

Candice sighed. "Yeah, it's always the people they are trying to impress who never notice. I hope Jeff's all right, He passed me in the hallway and he looked upset. I hope he's not sick."

"He's probably just trying to get her to sleep with him again," Victoria said callously. "I heard they sleep in separate beds since they got married."

Maria ran out of the lounge before anyone noticed her standing there. She couldn't bear to listen anymore. She felt as if a ton of bricks had just fallen on her head. All this time she had not realized Jeff was doing this all for her. But now that she had been practically slapped in the face with it, she could not believe she did not see it before. The natural hair, the colorless nails, the clothes… Jeff would not have done that for himself alone.

But why was Jeff doing this for her. Was Victoria right? Was he just doing this for sexual favor? Somehow she could not believe that Jeff would be so shallow. Still, he was a guy…

She was distracted from her thoughts when she picked up the familiar voices of several male superstars down the hallway from her. She saw Ric Flair talking to Batista, both of whom were joined by the Undertaker and Ken Kennedy a few seconds later.

"So tell me, who's the alien pod person who kidnapped Jeff Hardy?" Kennedy asked.

Ric chuckled. "No pod-person; that's Jeff Hardy. Just cleaned up and with a lil magic added."

"And I have a feeling you two are the magicians." The Phenom raised an eyebrow at them.

"Yeah? Well, I think midnight just struck," Kennedy said. "I just saw Jeff run into the bathroom looking like he was about to cry."

Maria immediately felt even more guilt ridden than before. _So he really was upset…_

"So what was Jeff's plan in all of this?" Taker asked curiously. "Does he think Maria doesn't love him anymore or something?"

Ric shrugged. "Nah... He just wanted to do something special for her."

"Getting her a bouquet of roses is special," Taker raised an eyebrow. "A total metamorphosis means something more."

At that moment John Morrison walked up to join the group. "Maybe she's not giving him the goods anymore."

"Nah, I don't think it's that." Ric shook his head. "There are guys who will do certain things for lust, but not what Jeff did. That kid suffered in that salon chair for two hours…"

"Two and a half…" Batista corrected, not wanting Jeff to get short changed on his suffering.

"Two and a half hours, getting his hair stripped of all the hair dye it was coated in," Ric explained to the other men, who all seemed to cringe at the thought. "I know the last time I got my hair treated, some idiot screwed up, and so they had to strip and re-dye it and I tell you, it hurts like hell."

"Now that's love," Taker chuckled but it had an edge of seriousness in it.

Maria's heart seemed to stop as all of the pieces came together for her. Jeff was in love with her for real. He had given up everything that made him Jeff Hardy in favor of being her Prince Charming, and all of this time she hadn't noticed. She felt terribly guilty that he had gone through all of that effort, and she knew she could not reciprocate that love.

"Would you do that for Sara, Taker?" Morrison grinned slyly at the Phenom.

"In a heartbeat," Taker answered plainly, but added, "But I don't need to, Sara loves me as I am."

"Yeah, you only spent three hours getting her name tattooed on your throat instead," Batista chuckled.

"Touché, smart-ass," Taker glared, but looked slightly amused at the point.

"Well I think intermission is almost over," Ric said, checking his watch. "So I need to get to the bathroom now before the show starts. I hear they don't let you back in if you go out again. I'll check on Jeff if he's still in there."

"Yeah and tell Maria that he's not dead or something," Kennedy added.

"Speaking of which…" Morrison lifted up his sunglasses. "She's over there."

Maria was quite startled when she noticed they had spotted her eavesdropping. Thinking quickly she walked over to them, pretending she hadn't heard a thing. "Hi, guys. I just got done powdering my nose, have you seen Jeff anywhere?"

"He's still in the bathroom I think," Batista answered.

"Still?" Maria pretended not to know. "I hope he's feeling all right…"

"I have to admit it, your husband actually looks like he could be on the cover of a men's magazine." Morrison chuckled. "Maybe you can get him to actually look normal from now on."

"Oh I don't think I could make him do that." She looked down at her hands.

"Wanna bet?" Kennedy said off handedly.

"I mean, it wouldn't be fair of me to ask him to give up his individual style for the rest of his married life," Maria admitted honestly.

"Well, I'd better find Sara before she thinks I've tried to escape," Taker grumbled.

"You bored too?" Kennedy raised an eyebrow, glad to find someone else who shared his sentiments.

"It would be one thing if it was Wagner, but all this sentimental stuff gets tiresome after awhile," The Phenom admitted, before going off to look for his wife.

The other men dispersed to either go to the bathroom before intermission ended or to find their respective dates. This left only Maria, standing there with her thoughts.

It was true she now knew that Jeff loved her, but she was not sure she felt the same way. It was not fair to make him sacrifice himself, his identity, for her when she couldn't return his feelings genuinely.

She was startled out of her reverie when she heard a familiar voice call out her name. She looked up and saw Jeff, walking towards her, and smiled. She felt some shame when she saw the weariness and slight sorrow in his eyes because she was the cause of it.

Without a second thought, she ran up to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him fully on the lips. Naturally, the younger Hardy was quite surprised by this sudden show of affection, but quickly melted into the kiss. At the same time, the worries and doubts he had carried before melted away as well.

Maria had come to a decision. Jeff had practically given her his soul, the least she could do was allow him some privileges with her body. And she promised herself that she would try to be a little more tolerant of his wild ways.

She had forgotten how warm and perfect his lips were. After all, she had not kissed him fully like this since that night at the club, when a wayward shoe had clocked her in the head and Jeff had rushed to her side like a knight in shining armor. She felt another pang of guilt, he had been nothing but sweet to her and she had only treated him like a friend, kind and affectionate but held at a distance. Now she decided to close that distance at least a little bit.

They continued to kiss passionately in the middle of the hallway until a bell chimed, signaling the second part of the performance.

Jeff pulled away and offered her his arm, his gentle smile returning, and the weariness gone from his eyes. "We'd better head back in, it's about to start."

She beamed at him as she took his arm.

Things were different between Jeff and Maria for that second half of the performance. During the passionate fervor of "Recondita Armonia" from Tosca, a song in which an artist compares his latest painting to his beloved Tosca, Maria gently rested her hand on Jeff's knee. In response, he placed his hand on top of hers and gently squeezed her fingers.

The last scene of the evening was from the famous opera La Boheme, in which the character Mimi sang of the ways her beloved Rodolfo could remember her.

As the soprano's voice rose to reach the high notes, Jeff slipped his hand under Maria's, lifted it up to his lips and gently kissed the back of her hand. She smiled and leaned in against his shoulder.

000

"Oh, that was so wonderful," Maria sighed wistfully as she and Jeff got back to their hotel room. "I wish I could sing like that!"

"I have to admit, I think I'm becoming a fan of opera," Jeff laughed a little.

Maria giggled. "Yeah? What was your favorite aria?"

Jeff pondered the question a few seconds before answering. "That one part when she sang 'If you want, keep a memory of love!' The way her voice just rose up and then softly fell, just got me right here." He placed her hand over his heart.

Maria closed her eyes and stood still, just feeling the gentle thump of Jeff's heart under her hand. And he just stood there, gazing at her.

"Did I tell you, you look really beautiful tonight?" he murmured.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him, smiling. "Yes, you did…" She looked down, embarrassment spilliing across her face. "And I know I forgot to tell you how deliciously handsome you look... but then you've always looked that way to me..."

"Really?" He looked at her in surprise, before frowning a little. "Maria I just have one question…" He looked away. "Um, at the start of this evening, you wouldn't even let me hold your hand for the first part of the opera, and then after intermission you're suddenly all over me. Is there a reason?"

Maria gently wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her head in so their noses touched. "Do I need a reason?"

Jeff chuckled and shook his head, before closing the distance between them. Their lips met in an even more passionate kiss than before. Their hearts quivered as a sweet warmth passed between them and synchronized their beats. The kiss might have gone on longer if Jeff had not backed into the bed and fell over, taking Maria with him. They both laughed at their situation as they were now both on the bed with Maria lying on top of Jeff in a rather suggestive manner.

"I think it's getting a little hot in here." He grinned, studying her intently.

"I was just thinking the same thing..." Maria smirked back. "Let's see if we can do something about it…"

She slid to the side of him, and leaning over, she began unbuttoning Jeff's white dress coat.

"Taking the initiative are we?" Jeff wobbled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Yup," She licked her lips and helped him sit up so that he could remove the coat completely, before lying back on the bed. Pulling his shirt free of his pants, she said, "You just let me take care of everything

Jeff could not help but blush a little as she slipped a hand under his now loose shirt and ran it across his abdomen and chest, while her other hand rested on his inner thigh. He hadn't had some real action in quite a while. At least with someone he held such deep feelings for. He wondered just how far this was going to go…

000

_Yay! Jeff is finally getting some action. As their relationship is taken to another level, we shall see where things go from here for Jeff and Maria…._


	13. I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

"_Hold me close, hold me tight  
Make me thrill with delight  
Let me know where I stand from the start  
I want you, I need you, I love you  
With all my heart"_

-Elvis Presley, _"I want you, I need you, I love you"_

000

Jeff woke up when the light from the hotel room window became so bright his eyelids could not shield it out completely. As his mind became more aware, all of the lovely memories of the previous night of passion came flowing back to him. They were so perfect; it almost seemed surreal like a dream. He frowned a little at that notion, until he became aware that Maria was in his arms and they were both still naked under the covers.

"Oh, cool it wasn't a dream," Jeff murmured as he kissed the top of Maria's head.

The sound of his voice and the feel of his kiss was enough to wake Maria. "What dream?" she murmured half-asleep, snuggling deeper into his arms.

Jeff let out a soft laugh and held Maria tighter. "It's not a dream, that's the best part."

She yawned and opened her eyes. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." He grinned broadly. After she had woken up a little more, he dared to ask the question he had been wondering about for the last few minutes. "So how was it? Did I do good?"

Maria giggled playfully and tilted her face up to kiss him. "You were great."

The younger Hardy's grin turned into one of accomplishment and pride, but after a few seconds, it took on a mischievous edge. "Was I better than Punk?"

His wife frowned. "That's not a fair question and you know it. What if I were to ask you how I compared to Trish?"

Jeff shrugged. "I'll tell, if you will."

"Well…" She began. "You two are just different…"

"Different? Different how?" Jeff quirked a curious eyebrow

"Like…" She stared up at the ceiling, trying to think of just the right words to say. "Apples and oranges."

"Apples and oranges. Which one am I?"

"An orange," she said positively.

"I'm an orange?" His interest was clearly piqued, which made her giggle a little at how much attention he was paying to this topic.

"Yeah," Maria continued. "Phil is more like an apple, safe and sweet. While an orange can be sweet too, it has more of a kick to it. But they are both equally yummy in their own way."

Jeff nodded thoughtfully. "I guess I am an orange."

Maria giggled again. "Yup and now it's your turn Sunny D,"

" 'Sunny D'? " Jeff chuckled. "That's a new one."

"Yup, and now it's my turn to ask you a question," Maria said slyly.

"Ask me anything you like," the younger Hardy prompted.

"How was I compared to Trish?"

Jeff contemplated his answer for a few moments; a slight almost unnoticeable sadness crossing his face for the briefest of seconds as he remembered his past with Trish. "I gotta say I got to go with your answer."

"Huh?" Maria furrowed her brow.

"You two are just different."

"Like apples and oranges?" She laughed softly. "Which one am I?"

"Well," he said slowly, organizing his thoughts. "With Trish… She really wanted the physical pleasure out of it, it helped her relax and get all of the tension out of her body, and of course it benefited me too, but with you it… I don't know … it seems more laid back and fun."

Maria frowned, resisting the strong urge to smack him. Was he implying that having sex with her was just some sort of casual thing, just fun? But when she read his expression, she realized he was telling her, 'I am so much more into that'. After all this was Jeff Hardy, he liked things that were different.

"Now when I say laid back," Jeff explained, wanting to make sure Maria understood exactly what he meant. "I don't mean casual, because I was into it body and soul, but I just didn't feel like I was under as much pressure to perform, so I was relaxed and at ease and that was really nice."

Maria smiled and kissed him lightly on the lips. "That's me fun-loving Maria."

"A perfect match for a fun loving Jeff Hardy." He kissed her back on the nose.

"Any more questions, Mr. nosy?" Maria teased.

"Was CM your first?" Jeff asked suddenly.

"Wha…What?" Maria stuttered, caught off guard by the question.

"Was Phil your first…?" he asked casually.

Maria pulled out of Jeff's embrace and sat up, pulling the bed covers closely around her. "Why do you want to know?" she asked; her voice nervous, almost apprehensive.

"Just curious." Jeff shrugged, but he remained silent. A worried look crossed his face and he sat up and wrapped an arm around her. She stiffened under his touch. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a sensitive subject," he said gently, kissing the side of her head. "You don't have to answer, if you don't want to. But if you do want to, I'll listen."

"Well, I think Phil thinks I'm his innocent little angel, and that he was my first," she said somewhat mournfully. "He never asked me and I never told. I think knowing the truth might hurt him somehow."

Jeff held up a hand as if making a solemn vow. "What's said in the bedroom; stays in the bedroom."

Maria wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her head on them.

Now Jeff really felt bad, they had had a perfect happy morning until he screwed it up.

Suddenly she lifted up her head and when she spoke, her voice sounded like someone who was tired of telling the same story over and over again, "Let's just say naïve freshman plus alcohol is a bad combination." She suddenly looked weary.

Jeff just nodded as he put the pieces together. He remained silent as he felt such words as "I'm sorry," or "That's too bad," seemed so trivial after the fact. Instead, he just allowed his thumb on the arm around her to gently stroke her shoulder.

"I was dating this guy for awhile," she said suddenly, resting her head on her knees again. "And he invited me to a party at his fraternity. I should have seen it coming. He'd been really pushing the envelope lately on our dates. I kept telling him I wasn't ready, but I guess he didn't want to wait…"

She sighed and looked over at Jeff. His face was stoic, yet sympathetic to her story. She was glad that for once someone wasn't gushing with sympathy or crying over something they had never experienced themselves. What Maria wanted was empathy, not sympathy.

"I think we all do stupid things that allow other people to take advantage of us in one way or another," he said quietly, then kissed her on the forehead.

Maria was surprised, there was something in that statement that had comforted her greatly. Jeff understood. Sure he may not have gone through the same exact same experience she had, but he understood the situation and could empathize with that. Knowing that, Maria felt like a little bit of weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"It took me a while before I could trust anyone again," she said.

"I understand, one of my first serious girlfriends cheated on me," Jeff admitted. "I know it's not nearly bad as what you went through. But I felt emotionally violated. I mean if someone I thought loved me so much could do that, how could I trust anyone anymore? Beth Britt helped me gain some of that trust in people back, but it took a long time and a lot of patience from her."

"What happened to you as a couple?" Maria asked curiously. She had just revealed a big secret to Jeff, so she felt she wanted to know a little more about his experiences. "Was it because of Trish?"

"Nah, we broke up before I met Trish," Jeff explained somewhat solemnly. "It's just that our lives were going in different directions. And I wasn't committed enough to her to make her give up her hopes for the future, nor was she ready to commit to me enough to give up wrestling. So ended it on friendly terms and we parted ways to pursue those hopes and dreams."

"Sounds like a good compromise." Maria nodded, and she asked the question that had been bugging her the whole time. "And what about you and Trish? Is that how you parted ways with her too?"

The younger Hardy's expression fell, turning from a thoughtful sadness about Beth to a dark despondency over Trish. Now it was Maria's turn to feel bad about touching on a sensitive subject for Jeff.

"I'd rather not talk about it right now," Jeff murmured, looking away. "I don't want to ruin the morning more than I already have."

"It's okay, I was getting pretty tired of 'question and answer' time anyway," Maria said, reaching out and, twiddling with some of Jeff's hair. She felt strangely unhappy when the piece of hair didn't melt into purple or some other color of choice. Then she remembered the promise that she had made to herself at the opera. "You should dye your hair again."

His head snapped around to look at her in surprise. "You really mean that?" His expression changed from one of despair to one of elation. "What color should I do?"

Maria couldn't help but smile back at his beaming face. "Maybe we could grab a pack of skittles, open it up and whatever color I pick that'll be the one."

Jeff threw his head back and laughed. "That sounds like something I'd do!"

"I think you're starting to rub off on me, Jeff Hardy." She slapped him playfully on his lower back.

Jeff cringed a little. "Oh man, my back's acting up again. I better get me some more aspirin."

"I'm sorry; I'll be gentler on you next time," Maria teased.

"Please do," Jeff chuckled as he got up, and started dressing.

"Where are you going?" Maria titled her head at him.

"To get some aspirin," he replied, buttoning his pants. "And some breakfast; want anything?"

"Well, let me get dressed and I'll meet you down there," Maria said, slipping out of bed and, grabbing her clothes. "Maybe we can get some breakfast at that restaurant. It looked nice."

"Sounds like a plan," Jeff said cheerily and pulled on one of his Hardy Boyz t-shirts. Now fully dressed, Jeff headed towards the door. He turned around to look back at Maria, while she got dressed. "You know, you look real pretty this morning."

The diva looked at him like he was crazy. "Are you kidding me? I've got bed hair and my eyeliner is all smeared."

"I know, it's just cute enough to be becoming." He grinned, "See you down there, don't take too long worrying about the little things."

With that, he exited the room still smiling.

Maria felt a small smile cross her lips. Not even Phil had called her morning look cute. She decided to try something a little different this morning. Instead of taking the time to brush out her bed hair, she tied it into a messy ponytail. She took a look in the mirror, and left most of the smudged eyeliner on, only washing off the worst of the smear marks. For clothes, she simply slipped on a pair of jeans and a baggy T-shirt, the kind that were wonderfully comfortable, but not very flattering to one's figure, the kind you'd wear around your house. She was going down to breakfast, Jeff Hardy style.

Meanwhile, the younger Hardy was waiting for the elevator. He thought about taking the stairs, but his body didn't feel up to running down twelve floors. His back was already sore and he didn't want to tire himself out before the Monday night RAW show later on. Not to mention he wasn't feeling well. As he became more awake, he became more aware that his nose was completely stuffed, making his head feel heavy, and his throat was a little sore.

His attention was diverted from aching body when he heard the click of a door nearby. Batista walked out of the room; what interested Jeff about this was, The Animal was still wearing the same suit from yesterday, and it looked a little wrinkled and disheveled. Batista paused and leaned his head back in to the room, the unmistakable smack of lips could be heard, followed by the familiar voice of Beth Phoenix.

"Thanks for the good time," the Glamazon smirked.

The Animal smirked back. "I should be saying that to you. Maybe we can do it again sometime soon? How about we go have breakfast?"

Still smirking, Beth answered mysteriously. "Maybe…" She shut the door.

"Well, what about breakfast?" Batista called through the door. When he received no answer he let out a sigh, and shrugging, he headed towards the elevators.

Jeff turned his head away, pretending he hadn't seen anything, as Batista walked up to stand next to him and wait. Finally the elevator arrived and the two stepped in. As the elevator carried them to their destination, the two men exchanged knowing glances at one another, in a silent code that only men seem to pick up. Jeff and Batista tapped fists in a small congratulatory gesture for their achievements.

A little later, Maria made the trek down to the lobby and spotted Jeff in the gift shop, purchasing the medication he wanted as well as a bag of skittles. She held her breath a little as he finished paying for them and walked over to her. She wondered what he would say when he saw her with practically no make-up, messy hair, and baggy clothes. He'd seen her like that many times while they were off the road, in the comfort of their respective homes, never in public.

Then it hit her, if she was feeling this self-conscious now, it must have been a hundred times worse for Jeff last night. Now she felt even guiltier that she hadn't noticed his efforts sooner.

"Hey, there." He greeted her with a friendly smile, and she wondered if he noticed that she had not bothered to get all dolled up. "Shall we get some breakfast?"

She smiled and took his hand. "I'd love too."

"But first things first." He stopped and opened the bag of skittles. "Here, choose."

Maria was about to ask what he meant by that until remembered their earlier conversation about him dying his hair again. She reached in and pulled out a purple skittle. "Purple it is." She grinned, popping it into her mouth.

"Wow…" Jeff murmured. "Now that was hot."

"What?" Maria laughed out of surprise.

"There's something about seeing my favorite girl eating my favorite candy that just…" He let out a large breath as if trying to calm himself down.

She giggled and ate a few more skittles, sensually licking the last one, to see what Jeff would do.

"Now if you don't stop that," he smirked and wagged his finger at her, "I can't be held responsible for us ending up in the tabloids because I made passionate love to you right here on the lobby floor."

They both laughed. He gently touched his forehead to hers, wrapping his arms around her waist. Jeff gently kissed her on the lips, before breaking the embrace and, taking her hand to lead her towards the restaurant for breakfast.

She blushed a little. Even though they had just had sex the previous night, there was something more intimate about that moment. She wondered if it was because it was not clouded by a rush of passion and hormones or if it was because she felt so relaxed, both in her choice of clothes and being next to him. Whatever the reason, she hugged his arm, just wanting to feel even closer to him.

Maria reached up and tugged on a bit of his hair. Most of it has been pulled back into a knot on the back of his head, but there was always a bit on the left side, too short to be tied back, that hung down and framed his face.

"I can't wait till it's purple again," she said softly. And this time it wasn't completely a lie…

000

_It seems a little bit of Jeff is rubbing off on Maria indeed…Perhaps her feelings are more than she thinks..._


	14. As Long as I Have You

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended_

"_Let's think of the future  
Forget the past  
You're not my first love  
But you're my last  
Take the love that I bring  
Then I'll have everything  
As long as I have you…"_

-Elvis Presley _"As Long as I Have You"_

000

Jeff could not wait to get back to the hotel; he could feel the sickness creeping up on him again. Immediately after the match he felt great, energized by the battle and the win, but as he changed out of his sweaty clothes, his adrenaline quickly faded away, and he felt worse than before.

He found Maria waiting for him outside of the men's locker room; he smiled, feeling a little better. There was something about the smile on her face that always made the world seem brighter.

"Hey there," she greeted him gently. "Feeling any better?"

"Not really," Jeff sighed wearily. "I felt better right after the match, but now I feel even worse. Do you mind if I skip the after show clubbing tonight? I'd just love to go back to the hotel and crawl into bed."

"Of course," she said, her eyebrows knitted in concern as she felt his forehead. He was burning up. "Let's get you home. I'll drive, you rest."

"Thanks." He put an arm around her as they headed towards the parking lot. "I owe you one, big time."

The couple passed Matt Hardy on their way out. With the Royal Rumble PPV coming up, there were a lot of interpromotional matches, which was why Matt was on RAW even though his home was _Smackdown!. _The older Hardy immediately picked-up that there was something physically wrong with his little brother.

"Hey, man," Matt came over to them and put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You okay?"

"Not really," Jeff answered tiredly. "That's why we're heading home. I'm sorry we won't be able to hang out with you and Ashley tonight."

"Don't worry about it," Matt smiled and patted Jeff on the shoulder. "You take care of yourself, okay? I need you in tip-top shape for the Royal Rumble."

"I promise, I'll take good care of him," Maria assured the older Hardy, as she led Jeff out.

"I'm counting on you, Maria," Matt called after them.

Even though the hotel was only a five minute drive away from the arena, Jeff was already half asleep by the time they got there. Maria carefully nudged him awake and helped him back to their room. Jeff immediately collapsed on the bed and curled up into a shivering little ball.

"This sucks," he muttered. "Can you hand me my fleece jacket?"

Maria handed him the jacket and helped him get under to covers. Despite how sick he was, he still enjoyed the feel of her hands on his forehead.

"You're even warmer," she said softly, checking his forehead. "Let me get some of the Advil you got. It should help lower the fever and a cold compress might help too."

"That would be nice," he murmured.

Maria bustled about for a few minutes. She came back and helped Jeff sit up and take a couple of Advil with a glass of water, before laying back down again. He let out a small sigh of contentment when she placed a cool cloth on his forehead.

"Thanks." He smiled weakly. "It's much nicer having a cold when you're taking care of me."

Maria smiled shyly back. "Thanks. Do you want the TV on? Or do you want anything to eat?"

"I'm not that hungry."

"You should eat something, your body need nutrients," she chided him. "How about a bowl of chicken noodle soup?"

Jeff nodded. "Yeah, you're right. My muscles need some protein after the match tonight."

The diva smiled a little when she won that argument, before calling room service and, ordering dinner. "They said it'll be here in twenty minutes."

"Awesome," he murmured sleepily.

"Anything else I can get you?" she asked.

"Nah, just sit with me for awhile," he said, closing his tired eyes a little.

"Okay." She sat down on the bed next to him and began gently stroking his hair.

They remained like that until their food came. They ate in comfortable silence; Jeff was deep in thought over a debate that had been going on in his mind since this morning.

"You know when you asked how me and Trish broke up?" he asked suddenly, startling Maria a little.

"Yeah?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I think I can trust you enough to tell," Jeff said firmly, before setting down the empty bowl of soup and, lying back down on the bed.

She smiled a little at this gesture of trust, and set her plate down, before lying on her side next to him.

"Trish and I were going pretty serious there for awhile," he began, with a slight smile on his face. "I never thought I'd fall for a girl like her, and I don't think she thought she could fall for a guy like me. It was if the lead cheerleader had fallen for the weirdo artsy kid. I guess Fate's just crazy that way." He sighed somewhat wistfully. Frowning, he rolled onto his side away from Maria.

The diva frowned a little in surprise at his action. She guessed he had changed his mind about telling the story. She pulled closer to him and began massaging his shoulders.

Jeff let out a small groan of contentment and a sigh of resignation, before speaking again. "I'm sure you heard about my drug problem back in 2003."

She froze, stopping the massage, but still kept her hands on his shoulders. She swallowed hard as she remembered some of the rumors and whispers about Jeff Hardy after she had signed on with the WWE. These stories only grew, surrounding the time of his return. Some of those were really nasty.

"Yeah, I heard," she answered slowly.

"Well, it wasn't as bad as everyone said," he said quickly, still looking away from her as if he was afraid of seeing the disappointment on her face at this admission of his wrong doings. "It wasn't crack or steroids or something like that...But it was enough to get me fired."

"Yeah, I heard about that part too," Maria murmured, giving his shoulder a little squeeze.

"Trish convinced me to try and kick the habit while I was off. I promised I would for her. She promised she'd call me every day and check up on me, keep me motivated." He swallowed hard. "She kept up her promise at first and I kept up mine, but then her calls got fewer and fewer."

"Maybe she couldn't bear to see you like that, or hear you suffering," Maria tried to explain Trish's actions, in a slim hope that it might make Jeff feel better. "I don't think she'd willingly let you go, Jeff."

"I know…I know… It's my own damn fault," Jeff growled in a voice that sound like it had gone through this conversation and self blame many times before, and was growing tired of it. "But I wanted to hear her voice while I was going through withdrawal. People, who have never gone through it, don't understand how hard it is."

The younger Hardy may have started off angry and frustrated, but as he spoke his voice became softer and started to waver. "You're sick everyday, you're depressed, and you feel like you want to die. So you cling to something that makes you feel happy, it was her voice telling me 'it will be all right, it'll be okay.' I lived on that."

Jeff paused as he swallowed a lump that had been growing in his throat. "And then it started slipping away… I'd go for days and not hear from her, that one thing that kept me going strong…"

Maria felt a lump rise in her throat and tears in her eyes. He was right; she didn't understand, at least not until now. "It must have been horrible for you..."

Jeff finally rolled over on to his other side, facing Maria. "I know it's my fault..." he said slowly. "But... I still felt like she was abandoning me when I needed her most."

A single tear fell down her cheek. "Oh, Jeff…" That was all she could say at that moment, but in her mind she was thinking, _That bitch! How could she abandon Jeff like that…?_

"Maybe that's why I was so angry with her when we last talked, that and I think the withdrawal was making me extra pissy," Jeff said darkly as he struggled to sit up. "We had a big falling out over the phone. She hadn't called me in a week and a half and I was going crazy. We just yelled at each other for about an hour, and then she hung up and I broke the phone... and that was it…"

Suddenly, Jeff laughed, but it was a hollow sound, devoid of any humor or happiness. "You can imagine how weird it was when I came back to the WWE, and she was still there for awhile."

Maria wiped away the tears. "I don't think I can imagine."

"The person I loved so much, and then I couldn't stand the sight of her…" Jeff said his voice wavering even more. His eyes were becoming bloodshot from the sickness and forcefully restrained tears. "I mean, I know she wanted to continue her career after I left... And I wanted her to do that, but couldn't she have just kept up one fucking phone call everyday?"

Maria looked at him helplessly, having no explanation or justification now. Instead, she just wordlessly wrapped her arms around him, with one had reaching up to gently stroke his hair.

Finally, all of Jeff's shields came down. His usual laid back wild one air was gone, broken by the flood of emotion and tears that came forth from his soul. Sorrow that had been held back for so long was finally being released.

Maria finally realized why Jeff had been so hesitant to tell her. It was the not the truth he had feared her knowing. He had been afraid of bursting into tears in front of her; she was touched that he trusted her enough to show such emotion in her presence.

After few minutes, Jeff calmed down and regained his composure; it seemed because of the sickness, he was too exhausted to cry anymore. She helped him lay back down again. A weak smile crossed his face as he gazed up at her.

"Thank you," he whispered. "That's been building up for awhile."

She smiled back at him. "You're welcome. Do you feel any better?"

"Yeah," He swallowed what was left of the lump in his throat. "I've been wanting to get that off my chest for a long time. Matt was the only one I could trust, but I didn't want to burden him. Well, he was the only one I could trust until now." Despite the exhausted look in his eyes, they were still filled with all of the adoration in the world for her. "Thanks for being here Maria…"

"You're welcome," she said softly, still stroking his hair. "Now the best thing for a person with a fever is to get some sleep. That's what you need most right now."

He nodded and settled back into to the pillows. "Maria…" He said as his eyelids drooped to almost closed.

"Yeah?"

Whether it was the sickness tearing down the walls of his inhibitions, or the feeling of complete trust he felt towards her after reliving one of his most painful memories; he opened his heart even more and spoke the words he had been terrified to utter before. "I love you…"

She stared at him in stunned silence for a moment, taken completely off guard by this admission on his part. She knew this was not the kind of casual "I love you" one said to a dear friend. The seriousness in his face and the tone of his voice said this was the confession of a man deeply and truly in love with her.

How could she respond when she was so unsure of her feelings? The particular state of affairs they were in made it hard to tease apart genuine feelings from just trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Luckily, making the declaration of love seemed to have sapped away the last of Jeff's strength. When she looked down at him again he was fast asleep, already snoring softly from his stuffy nose. She smiled a little and tenderly kissed him on the forehead.

"Goodnight Jeff…"

000

_Jeff finally confessed his love, even if it was under the cloud of sickness, it was still straight from the heart. The question is, will Maria be able to sort out her real feelings?_


	15. Is It so Strange?

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended_

"_Though you say our love is just a game_

_And when you hear my name_

_You'll say I'm from a strange world_

_But is it so strange to be in love with you_

_Is it so strange?_

_That I love you more than all the world_

_Is it so strange…?"_

-Elvis Presley _"Is It so Strange?"_

_000_

_Had they really been together for half a year?_

It had been three months since he had confessed his love for her in a moment of weakness while he had the flu. However, since then the subject had not come again, he did not even bother to pry and see if she loved him back. She was thankful for that, since she still was not sure how she really felt, and plus she had promised that once the year was over she would go back to Phil.

_Do I love Jeff or not?_

_Do I still love Phil?_

_Should I go back to Phil or stay with Jeff?_

Maria pondered the questions as she looked down at her cup of rather strong homemade liquor. It was made by one of the Hardy's friends, Moonshine. That was how it was done in the dirty-dirty south as Jeff called it.

Ironically on the same day of the sixth month anniversary of her and Jeff's Las Vegas wedding, it was also Gilbert Hardy's birthday, hence why everyone was gathered at Jeff's dad's house with Moonshine and all for a celebration.

She had joined Jeff and Matt in taking time off to celebrate their father's birthday, though on the way back to North Carolina, she and Jeff had stopped and stayed a couple days at her parents' house. This time she was surprised when they were just about leave for the airport and Jeff came back with his hair free of all dye again. He was also dressed in a sleek collared shirt and black slacks. When she asked him why he had done that, he explained he wanted to make a better second impression on her parents.

She showered him with grateful hugs and kisses, but she found she missed his colorful hair and insisted that when they arrived at Jeff's house he would dye it back again if he wanted to.

He was trying so hard to please her and her folks, showing just how serious he was in this relationship. Which made it extra hard for her to sort out her feelings. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. What she really needed was some good advice. She had thought about asking her parents, but she did not want to put any more doubt in their minds against Jeff, when he was stepping up to impress them so much.

She looked up from her cup and spotted Matt, talking to his father. When the dark haired Hardy walked away to go talk to Ashley, Maria got up and sat down next to Gilbert Hardy.

"Mr. Hardy?" she asked shyly.

"Gilbert," he corrected, after all she was family now.

"Gilbert. I just wanted to ask something out of curiosity," she began, choosing her words carefully. "How did you know when you loved Jeff's mom, your wife? I mean loved her enough to want to marry her."

"The little things," he answered simply.

"The little things?" She raised an eyebrow.

"When you love all of the little things your loved one does then you know," he explained. He was generally a man a few words, but when someone asked for his wisdom he was glad to share. "Because it's all those little things that will keep you together each and everyday."

She nodded thoughtfully. It was a valid point, what was left after all the passion was gone? It was the little things.

"Hey, whatcha y'all talking about?" Jeff sat down next to Maria and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"How the little things are what really make couples stick together." Maria leaned on his shoulder.

"Ah, wise words." Jeff grinned, pulling her a little closer. "My dad's just full of them, aren't you, Dad?"

"That's right." The elder Hardy nodded. "But me saying them and you listening to them are two different things, that often don't happen at the same time."

Jeff laughed. "True that."

After a few minutes the laughter died down and Jeff got up. "Maria, want to see the new puppies?"

Maria practically jumped up from her seat. "Yeah!"

If here was one thing the brown haired diva loved it was a bunch of adorable puppies. Luckily for her, Gilbert Hardy bred hunting dogs, and had a new litter each year.

She followed Jeff to a fenced off area behind the house where the puppies were allowed to run around outside. She could not keep herself from giggling as she and Jeff entered the square. He picked up one of the puppies. There was just something about seeing a hot guy with and adorable puppy that made her swoon a little.

"We haven't named them yet," he said, handing one of the puppies to her. "Want to name this one?"

The puppy was white with black patches over its body. Maria said the first thing that came to mind. "Patches?" she said innocently.

Jeff chuckled a little when "Patches" licked Maria's chin. "He seems to like it. Patches it is."

Maria smiled as she watched Jeff play with the other puppies. It seemed like every time he was home, a different side of him would come out. He was still the same Jeff, but all of his wild personality traits seemed tempered, calmer. In general he seemed more at ease and happy.

Sure on the road he was still a laid back and easy going guy, but it was a different kind. There was a defensive seriousness behind it, as if the whole "I don't care what people think of me" attitude was just a protective curtain. After all if you did not care what people thought, you would not get your feelings hurt.

She liked this home side of Jeff, and hoped she would see it more often...

000

Jeff could not believe how fresh and rejuvenated he felt. Having some time at home always made him feel better; it was not so much of a physical break as it was a mental one. At home he could be completely relaxed, and just be himself. The fact that Maria was there to share in his happiness made it all the better.

She seemed more relaxed as well. When she was not on the clock at the WWE shows, her choice of dress for around town was a lot more casual and laid back than it had been before.

Before when they would leave the hotel just to go out to lunch, she would put on a full face of make-up, brush her hair furiously, change from her baggy jeans into her tight hip-huggers, slip on her high heeled platforms, and grab one of her low cut trendy tops. She looked pretty, but not very comfortable.

Now, she only put some eyeliner on her top lid and pulled her hair back into a neat pony tail. She kept the baggy jeans and wore whatever shirt she grabbed first.

In the excitement of his father's birthday he had forgotten that it was also the sixth month anniversary since he and Maria tied the knot in Vegas. It was funny how something that started off so wrong turned out so right. It just went to show you that sometimes you do not know what you want until it is thrust in front of you.

Lucky for him, Candice had asked him about it while he was down in the lobby, getting himself some Advil and some extra hair ties for Maria. It gave him time to get Maria a little something, before heading back up to the room. He was not going to be one of those anniversary forgetting husbands.

When Maria came out of the shower, she was wearing track pants and a Hardyz t-shirt. She was greeted by Jeff who had two Krispy Kreme doughnuts stacked up like a cake, complete with six candles.

"Happy Anniversary." He grinned.

Maria was speechless for a few seconds out of sheer surprise. She sat down next to him and helped blow out the candles.

"Oh I haven't had a Krispy Kreme in ages," she said softly, almost completely overcome by this gesture of his.

"Me neither." He took a bite of one of the doughnuts.

"I forgot how sweet these are," she said after a few bites.

"Not as sweet as you." He winked at her.

She blushed and went back to eating her doughnut. "You're the sweet one. You actually remembered?"

At knowing Maria had forgotten too, Jeff felt a little relieved. "Well, I had the advantage, I ran into Candice and she asked me about it."

"Hehe! She's the one who always keeps up with all the birthdays and anniversaries and holidays." Maria giggled. "Any excuse to throw a party."

After she had finished her doughnut, Maria licked the leftover sugar glaze off her fingers, and picking up the remote control, she turned the TV on. Sitting back, she began braiding her damp hair.

Jeff finished his doughnut as well and cleaned his hands, before sitting down just behind Maria.

"Need any help?" he asked, referring to braiding Maria's hair.

"That'd be great," she said, throwing her hair behind her back.

The younger Hardy picked up a bit of her hair and sniffed. She smelled like lavender, a perfect sent for her. He began carefully weaving and, threading the hair between his fingers into an elegant plait. When he was finished and had tied off the hair at the end, he pulled her hair to the side and gently kissed the back of her neck.

She giggled and hunched her shoulders reflexively as he kissed the notch between her shoulder and her neck. She smiled and closed her eyes as he continued his line of kisses back up her neck, around her ear and finally on the side of her head. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and snuggled his head against hers.

Comfortable, they allowed their attention to wander to the TV screen. They were both surprised when they saw an image of the church in Vegas where they were married. Then it switched to one of the reporters.

"_Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vega. Unfortunately for several hundred couples married at the "Love Me Tender" wedding chapel, that is not the case. Just yesterday police found that the current minister there is a fraud. This also means marriage licenses issued by him are null and void…"_

Both Maria and Jeff sat there completely frozen.

"Then that means we're not…" Maria began shakily.

"…Married," Jeff finished.

"Oh my god." Maria suddenly got up and started rushing around the hotel room, gathering up her things as quickly as she could.

Jeff blinked a couple of times as if not believing what was happening. He shook his head and got up too, following her around in her rush. "Calm down, Honey, nobody's going to get angry at you; at us... we didn't know this guy was a fraud. We were duped like everyone else." He grabbed her arm and pulled her close. "Our parents know we didn't cook this up so we could live together..."

Maria shook he head and looked down at the floor. "I don't know, Jeff, maybe it's not meant to be. Maybe it's a sign that we shouldn't be doing this; that we're not meant to be together."

Jeff's jaw dropped, completely taken aback by her words. She slipped out of his embrace when his grip loosened in shock. While she continued to pack up her things, Jeff just followed her around like a lost puppy, struck mute for a moment by the shock of her of leaving him.

"You know, my parents can't get too mad at me, I mean how could we know that the guy was a fraud?" Maria rambled to herself as she finished the last of her packing. "I wonder if Ashley will let me bunk up with her and Michelle for the night, or maybe Candice and Mickie will let me hang out with them."

She shouldered her bags and headed for the door. At the last minute Jeff's voice came back to life.

"We could go get married for real you know..." he said softly.

She stopped at the door, shaking a little, both from the weight of her bags and the suggestion put to her. "I don't know, Jeff... We were just sort of forced together, I thought this whole thing was meant to be but now... now that it's not…" she trailed off unsure of how to put the rest of her words.

"Maria," his voice was still soft, but a little choked up as well. "Do you love me? I told you how I felt once before, remember? I wanted to wait and see if you would answer on your own. But now I need to know. Do you love me?"

"I don't know Jeff…" She answered honestly. She looked back at him with tears beginning to swell in her eyes, and then without another word, she ran out the door, shutting it behind her.

Jeff stood there; silent as if he had just been slapped across the face. He shook his head and opened the door and ran after Maria.

"Maria, wait!" he called out as if she were just in front of him. He turned the corner of the hallway and entered the elevator area. He spotted Maria, walking into one at the end of the line. He raced down there at full speed, but was too late. The doors were closed and she was gone….

000

_Oh dear… Poor Jeff and Maria have been thrown for a real loop. Their marriage is null and void, at least in the eyes of the law, and as far as Vince McMahon would be concerned, they don't __**have**__ to stay together anymore. _

_Clearly Jeff wants to… but Maria isn't so sure…_


	16. One Broken Heart for Sale

_"Hey Cupid, where are you?  
My heart is growing sadder  
That girl rejected me  
Just when I thought I had her_

_Who wants to buy a heart  
One broken lover's heart  
One broken heart for sale…"_

-Elvis,_ "One Broken Heart for Sale"_

000

Ashley Massaro and Matt Hardy were currently having a make-out session in her room. Michelle McCool had gone out shopping, leaving the room available to them. Ashley and Matt had originally planned to go to a movie, but found each other to be more entertaining.

Suddenly Ashley's cell phone went off, interrupting any actions that might have gone further than kissing.

"Damn it," Ashley mumbled, rolling over to grab her phone from the desk. "Hello? Maria? What's wrong, honey...?"

Matt was about to ask what was going on when his own cell phone rang. "Jeff? Hello? Jeff? What's the matter, man? Your voice sounds shaky."

"Maria, don't cry, Sweetie..." Ashley said, looking helplessly over at Matt.

"Okay, Jeff, calm down and breathe," Matt said gently to his brother, before glancing over worriedly at Ashley. "You have Maria on the phone?" he whispered to her.

"Yeah, and you have Jeff?" she whispered back.

"Yeah…"

The two began putting the pieces together; something had gone wrong with relationship between their two friends.

"You have Maria come over here," Matt said, getting up. "I'll go check on Jeff."

Ashley nodded and went back to talking with Maria. "You want to come here? No... You're not disturbing us. Matt was just leaving. He has some practicing he needs to do for some new moves. What? Okay... see you in a bit." She hung up the phone and looked over at Matt again. "How bad is he? She's hysterical..."

"Don't worry I'll be right over," Matt hung up his phone as well. "So is he, I wonder what happened…"

Ashley shrugged her shoulders heavily. "I don't know; I guess we'll soon find out. You'd better go, if she's on her way over and if she sees you're here, she might not come in."

"Right." He kissed Ashley on the cheek. "I'll see you later and then we can compare notes."

Ashley nodded as he turned and exited the room. Not long afterwards, there was a soft knock at the door. When Ashley opened it she found Maria, standing there, trembling.

"Maria? What's wrong?" Ashley asked gently as she let the other diva in.

Maria started to say something, but burst into tears instead. Ashley wrapped her arms around her friend in a tight embrace.

"There, there…" Ashley patted the other diva on the back. "What happened?"

"I don't know what to do…" Maria cried between sobs.

Ashley loosened her hold on Maria and held her at an arm's length. "What do you mean? Did something happen between you and Jeff?"

Maria nodded and when she was calm enough to speak, she finally answered. "The guy who married me and Jeff is a fraud…"

"What?" Ashley's eyes widened in shock. "Does this mean that technically you and Jeff aren't married anymore?"

Maria nodded. "And I don't know what to do now; I don't know if I really love Jeff..."

Ashley breathed out a sigh; this was just as she feared. "You have to listen to your heart, after all this time, regardless of it being a real marriage or not...do your feelings for him still stay the same?"

"That's just it; I don't know..." Maria shook her head. "I don't know if that's love like I really love him, or just me loving him as a friend and companion, and just trying to make the best of the situation. "

The brunette sighed dejectedly and sat down on the bed. "I mean...CM Punk and I were together before all this..."

Ashley turned serious as she sat down next to her friend. "You have to decide who you really love, Maria...It's not right keeping both of those guys hanging in the balance."

"I know... I know..." Maria bowed her head. "And that's why this is so hard... I need time to do some soul searching."

"Just don't take too long or you might wind up losing the best thing you ever had," Ashley said warningly, yet gently.

"I want to be sure I really love Jeff," Maria said firmly. "I owe him that much."

"Good," Ashley nodded and she smiled. "In the mean time, why don't you stay with me or Candice for awhile, till you sort things out?"

"Thanks, Ashley." Maria managed a weak smile.

_I hope Jeff's all right…._

_000_

Ten minutes after leaving Ashley, Matt arrived at Jeff's room. He knocked on the door and was surprised to find it was already open. He walked inside and saw Jeff lying face down on the bed with a pillow over his head. Matt gulped a little as he approached him, apprehension sending a shiver down his spine. He feared Jeff might have done something drastic in a fit of despair.

Matt lifted up the pillow. "Jeff?" He pulled back the purple mane of hair to reveal his little brother's tear stained face. The younger Hardy sniffed and opened his eyes. Matt let out a sigh of relief at seeing his brother was relatively fine.

"What's the matter, Jeff?" Matt gently rubbed his back.

Jeff took a deep breath and blew it out, before answering. "Maria's gone... she left me because the marriage turned out to be invalid... I can't believe she could walk away like that after everything..." He looked like he might burst into tears again. "What am I gonna do, Matt? I miss her..."

Matt shook his head in disbelief at what he just heard. "Wait, wait…What do you mean you marriage is invalid?"

Jeff wiped away his tears and sat up, pulling his knees into his chest and resting his head upon them. "The guy who married us is a fraud."

"No shit…" Matt whispered in surprise. "Now what's this about Maria leaving you?"

"She left because she feels it wasn't meant to be any more..." Jeff looked up at his brother, tears threatening to flow again. "Matt, what am I gonna do? I love her..."

"I know…I know…" The older Hardy put an arm around his little brother, thinking of words that might raise Jeff's hopes a bit. "Maybe she just got a little overwhelmed, and when girls get that way they tend to run off to talk to their girlfriends."

"You think so?" Jeff grabbed on to the hope offered to him.

"Yeah, in fact I think she's talking to Ashley right now," Matt patted Jeff on the back. "I bet she'll be back soon."

"I hope so…." Jeff murmured softly.

In an effort to put a smile on his little brother's face if only for a moment, Matt stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes, making a funny face. The idea got the desired effect, Jeff let out a snigger, breaking up his tense sadness.

Matt grinned. "That's more like it…"

000

_Poor Jeff he has one broken heart for sale, hopefully Maria will make her decision soon… But who will she choose?_


	17. Big Love, Big Heartache

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

"_Oh yes, I know it's true  
The more you fall in love  
The more your heart can break in two  
Now that you've said goodbye  
For every tender kiss  
I've had the tears I cry  
I gave my heart and soul  
All the love I knew  
Oh how much it hurts me now  
To know that we are through…__"_

-Elvis Presley, _"Big Love, Big Heartache"_

000

Maria sat in her chair at the restaurant, playing with her napkin. She was waiting for CM to return from the bathroom, so they could discuss what dessert they were going to have. It felt weird to be going out with a guy who was not Jeff, even if it was the guy she had been dating before she and Jeff had been thrust together in Vegas.

She had only spoken to Jeff once since leaving him after the report broke on the news. It was right after a visit to Mr. McMahon's office to discuss their marital status. As far as Mr. McMahon was concerned, the fraud report alleviated WWE of any responsibility for Jeff and Maria's actions. So whether Jeff and Maria stayed together or spilt apart it was their decision and theirs alone.

After the meeting, she and Jeff talked in the hallway about their situation. Maria told him everything she had told Ashley that night after she had left. Her doubts, her fears, how she wanted a little time to do some soul searching. The whole time she could see Jeff could not look her in the eye; either he was too sad or too disgusted with her. However, he agreed she that should sort out her feelings, before taking their relationship any further. He did not want to be stuck with a person who did not love him for real. He was clearly upset about it, but he agreed to go along with it and let her do what she had to do to sort out her feelings.

Now she was doing just that. The main cause of all her uncertainty was her wondering if she still had feelings for CM Punk. She had called him and told him what had happened; of the marriage fraud, but not about her possible feelings for Jeff

It was strange, all the while she was eating and talking with CM Punk on their date, her mind kept traveling back to Jeff. She kept wondering what he was doing right now, what food he would want to get if he were here, thinking of how much more entertaining Jeff's colorful hair was compared to Phil's plain brown. Little things like that.

Finally, Punk came back, and sitting down across from her, he smiled. "So what shall we get for dessert?"

"Oh, um," Maria jumped a little as her mind had been off in the distance while he had been gone. "I actually wasn't thinking about that…I was just thinking… Do you believe there is a life after death?"

"What?" Punk chuckled, looking at her as if she were crazy. "Where did that come from?"

Maria looked down, feeling a little embarrassed. "It just popped into my head."

"I think some of Jeff has rubbed off on you." He rolled his eyes a little.

"Yeah…" Maria murmured. She had gotten used saying whatever popped into her head, and having Jeff respond with interest and take up a conversation on it.

"So what about dessert?" Phil prompted.

"I think I'll just have another Cosmopolitan." Maria sighed, thinking nothing of it.

"Maria…" Phil said hesitantly.

"Huh?" Maria looked at him in surprise, but then got the reading. He didn't want her drinking anymore; it was against his Straight Edge lifestyle, not to mention it had been the thing that had gotten her and Jeff into their marriage situation in the first place. "Oh, never mind… I'm not that hungry."

"Look, I know you like that stuff, but you have to understand where I'm coming from…" he said.

Maria looked down at the table. "Yes, I do…"

Then it hit her, he was trying to change her, trying to get her to follow more of his lifestyle. As she thought about it, he'd been doing it when they were together before. Sure he never forced her to change, but he would always subtly hint that she should not be doing something and because she liked him, she would always change her behavior. However, it seemed like she _always_ made the adjustment for him, shouldn't a good relationship have _both_ people in it making compromises?

She thought about her relationship with Jeff. They had both made changes to suit each other. She had become more accepting of his colorful hair and eccentric style, and in return, he would dress up and look trendier to suit certain places where they went. He had changed a little for her; she's changed a little for him. A balance.

"Shall we just go then?" CM asked, snapping her once again out of her thoughts.

"Oh sure, that's probably a good idea," she answered, looking up at him.

After they paid the bill and began to make their way back to the hotel, they fell into an uneasy silence as they walked along. Maria was deep in thought over her feelings for the two men she cared about. Her serious face did not go unnoticed by Punk.

"Are you okay?" He reached out to touch her hand.

She was surprised by her strong urge to pull her hand away. It was as if she felt like her hand didn't belong there, that it belonged in someone else's hand.

_Jeff's hand…_

Did she love Jeff?

It was then that she remembered the words of wisdom Gilbert Hardy had imparted to her.

"_When you love all of the little things your beloved does, then you know you love them. It's the little things that will keep you together each and everyday…"_

Maria realized she had come to love all of those little things about Jeff. Waking up in the morning or after a nap to the sound of him singing in the shower, the way he would say whatever popped into his head no matter how strange the subject, finding his little sketches and poems everywhere, those moments before the show when they would do each other's hair and nails.

She also noted the changes in herself that Jeff had caused. She was more laid back and relaxed about her looks and how she acted when she was off camera. When she was with Jeff, once the WWE show was over, she could turn off "Maria the sexy Diva" and just be Maria, and the younger Hardy liked her just the same. It felt so good to be at ease all of the time, instead of tense like she had to live up to the ideal of her girlfriends, fans, or Phil for that matter when she was off camera. The only one whose opinion mattered was Jeff's. This lead to her dancing wildly right along side him at the clubs, not caring who thought what about them, and she found she had much more fun that way. She loved all of those little things about the rainbow-haired warrior. And the idea of going through life without all of that did not seem like a happy existence. She could not bear the idea of never having all of those little things a part of her life anymore.

Her love for him was not born out of passion or lust, like many couples around the WWE and maybe that's why it stuck so well.

As she looked back up at Phil, she just felt it in her heart, the spark between her and CM Punk simply wasn't there anymore. And she realized that their relationship right before her marriage to Jeff was a strained one. They had stayed together out of fear of loneliness; maybe that was what had led to the uncomfortable silences like the one that was passing between them now.

"Phil…" she began as they finally entered the hotel lobby. "Do you still feel the same way about me?"

"What?" Punk looked at her, surprised at the sudden question. He quickly looked away from her, obviously not sure how to answer.

"Because I'm not sure I feel the same way about you," she admitted.

"What do you mean by that?" He looked back at her.

"I mean, I don't feel the same spark from before like…" She paused, trying to find the right words, so as to not be too harsh on him. "Like I was clinging on to something that was already slipping away…"

"You felt that way too?" he asked quietly. At her look of surprise by his question, he continued. "When we were separated, I found I didn't miss you as much as I thought I would," he said honestly. "And, Jeff wasn't the only one that got in between us."

He looked down at the floor a little ashamed. It didn't take Maria long to figure out what he meant. His heart was going out to someone else as well. She could not help but smile a little, she was glad he would not be alone either.

"Who is it?" she asked with genuine curiosity in her voice.

He looked up at her again, clearly comforted by her light hearted voice.

"Mickie James," he admitted.

Maria breathed an over exaggerated sigh of relief. "That's a relief; here I thought you had hooked up with Kelly Kelly or Layla."

Punk chuckled a little before turning a little sad. "I guess this is it then, huh?"

"I guess it is." Maria nodded her head slowly.

"Could I at least get a kiss goodbye?" CM looked at her almost pleadingly.

"Sure, for old times sake," she said softly, leaning toward him.

Their lips met in one last good-bye with the last bastion of passion felt for one another left in them. As if they were using up their last reserves in order to start fresh with their new relationships.

They were so focused on each other they did not hear the sound of the nearby elevator reach their floor. However, the sound of a rasped "No!" did pierce their passion. They broke their kiss abruptly and looked toward the source of the voice.

Standing in the elevator in front of them was Jeff Hardy…

000

_Oh how cruel fate is, just when Maria realizes she loves Jeff, he now thinks she doesn't love him…_


	18. Have I Told You Lately That I love You?

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

"_My heart would break in two if I should lose you_

_I'm no good without you anyhow_

_And have I told you lately that I love you_

_Well darling I'm telling you now."_

_-_Elvis Presley_, "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You"_

_000_

Jeff just stood there, staring at them, his jaw dropping in absolute shock. He could not believe he had just seen Maria kissing CM Punk, and not just a little peck on the lips, but a full-blown passionate kiss. This cannot be happening, it was too surreal and unbelievable, but it was.

Maria and Punk stared back at him, almost equally shocked that Jeff happened to be there.

"Jeff…" Maria began, but it was too late. The elevator doors closed, closing off the younger Hardy from them before any explanation could be given.

Still in his shocked stupor, Jeff's subconscious took over and he pressed the button to take him back up to the floor he and Matt were staying on. The younger Hardy leaned against the back of the elevator, feeling as if his legs might buckle underneath him. He was still so much in shock that he could not even cry or yell in anger.

Finally the elevator reached the floor he wanted. Just by chance, when the door opened, Matt was standing there, on his way down to meet Jeff in the lobby. The older Hardy could immediately see that something was wrong with his little brother.

"Jeff, what's wrong?" Matt's eyebrows knitted together in concern.

Seeing the look of worry, on his older brother's face, was enough to snap the younger Hardy out of his emotional paralysis. He collapsed onto the floor and burst out in sobs. Matt ran in and helped his brother to his feet and guided him out of the elevator.

"Jeff, what is it? What happened?" Matt questioned him, when the younger Hardy's sobs had calmed a little.

Jeff just shook his head. He did not want to tell Matt what Maria had done. His brother was a nice person, but could have a vindictive streak when provoked, particularly when it concerned an offense against his little brother. And yet, even now he still loved her with all his heart and did not want her to come under his older brother's wrath.

It was weird, he wanted his older brother's comfort and yet, he wanted to be alone to mourn his loss. He choose the best solution he could think of, he broke away from Matt and locked himself in the bathroom again…

What did he do wrong?

He wasn't crying because he felt betrayed, well, not exactly. He knew she would be seeing CM Punk during their separation, in fact he wanted her to, so she would know her feelings for sure. He was crying because now he knew her feelings, she had made her choice and it was not him. She did not love him. And the worst of it was, he was still in love with her with all his heart, but now she was gone from him forever…

000

Tonight's RAW was hosting a "Road to Wrestlemania" championship ladder match. Whoever could climb to the top of the ladder first and retrieve the briefcase containing a "No. 1 Contender's Contract," could have his pick of which world champion he wanted to face at Wrestlemania.

This match was made after the Royal Rumble winner, Mr. Kennedy, tore his pectoral muscle which would sideline him for several months. Because of this he had to give up his prize. The competitors for the ladder were the last eight remaining wrestlers in the Royal Rumble.

Both Hardys would have been included in the match, but Matt had finally won the U.S. Championship from MVP at the Royal Rumble and was scheduled to defend the title at Wrestlemania. Currently the two brothers were driving to the arena; Matt was driving, with Jeff in his depressed state of mind it would not have been wise to let him drive.

Jeff stared mournfully out the car window. His eye lids drooped at half-mast and a generally pained look was stuck to his features.

"Come on, Jeff, what's wrong?" Matt asked again.

"Nothing…" Jeff murmured

"That expression is not 'nothing,' Jeff," Matt said.

Jeff shook his head and finally looked at his brother. "Please, Matt… Don't…" His eyes were practically begging Matt to just drop the subject.

So Matt did.

The two brothers remained in a tense silence for a number of minutes, until Matt, in an attempt to break the tension, finally spoke. "Hey, good luck in the Ladder Match tonight." Matt reached over and gave his little brother a pat on the shoulder.

Jeff managed to smile weakly at his brother's effort. "Thanks… It's going to be a tough match. It will be interesting to see Batista in a ladder match."

Matt laughed. So far, the Animal was one of the few World Heavyweight champions who had never been in a ladder match. Though to Batista's credit, he had survived a Punjabi Prison match which involved climbing two bamboo walls and won.

"You'll do fine." Matt grinned, and turning a little more serious, he continued the pep talk, "Just think, when you climb that ladder you'll have the opportunity to challenge one of the World Champions. Now remember, you just have to stay focused Jeff!"

Jeff's face fell a little as an image of CM Punk and Maria kissing flashed through his memory again. "Right…Focused…"

"I mean on the match," Matt chided him.

"I know!" Jeff snapped defensively.

"Okay, Okay…Just giving you a friendly reminder." Matt gently tugged on a bit of Jeff's hair.

Jeff weakly smiled, and turned to look out the car window again.

"Are you sure you're okay? You don't look well." Matt studied Jeff's features. He noticed how pale his brother's skin was and how sunken and tired his eyes were. Jeff had the look of some one who was in excruciating pain. "You're not having any pain in the lower right quadrant of your abdomen are you?" he asked, suddenly looking alarmed, fearing that Jeff's appendix was acting up like his once did.

"No…I'm not…" Jeff grumbled. _Just a pain in my upper left quadrant where my heart was ripped out…_

Matt nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer. "Okay… Just checking."

000

When the Hardys arrived at the arena Jeff made a beeline for the locker room and one of the bathroom stalls. He just wanted to be alone as long as possible before the match and he also wanted to make sure he did not run into Maria or even worse, CM Punk. Since Punk was the ECW champion, he would be here tonight to watch the ladder match along with John Cena the WWE champion and the Undertaker who was current the World Heavyweight champion.

In the mood Jeff was in right now, if he ran into CM Punk he might punch the poor kid right between the eyes. So for his own sake, Jeff decided to separate himself from everyone in general. He was very tired from losing lots of much need sleep over Maria being gone and, Wrestlemania coming up. He wanted a championship opportunity at Wrestlemania so much; he was under a lot of pressure to win. Maria's absence for the last couple of weeks had only added to the stress the pressure had already caused. It was taking its toll on Jeff's spirit. And now on top of all of that, he found out that Maria did not love him. It was almost too much to bear.

He snapped out for his depressed thoughts when he heard the voices of Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels in the bathroom outside. Jeff knew the one thing he really needed right now was some good advice about his situation. Usually when he was looking for advice he would turn to his older brother Matt or his father, but he did no't think they would help him in this particular situation.

Shawn and Ric on the other hand…

After all, Shawn had been married for almost ten years, and Ric… Well, Ric just had a lot of experience. Having both their points of view on the subject would help a lot.

"Hey, Jeff," Ric greeted the Rainbow-haired warrior as he emerged from the bathroom.

"How are things between you and Maria? More when are you two getting remarried?" Shawn asked; he and the other superstars had heard about the fraud on the news.

Flair chuckled and patted Jeff on the back. "I bet they can't wait to get remarried. This time you two going have a big church wedding, eh Jeff?"

"Um…" Jeff stalled, getting cold feet on whether to tell Ric and Shawn the truth.

"Or not…?" Shawn quirked an eyebrow at him. "What's wrong, Jeff?"

Jeff took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. "She left me... She left me and went back to CM. I mean it wouldn't be so bad... Except… I still love her… I don't know what to do…"

"Well if she's chosen someone else, Jeff, there's really not much you can do," Shawn said soberly. "If what you've done for her so far isn't good enough, then she's not worthy of you."

Jeff looked completely crestfallen; that was the answer he had feared and refused to believe in. However, the ever optimistic Ric jumped in to try and rescue Jeff from falling completely into the pit of despair again.

"Now, now let's not jump the gun here. How do you know she's officially gone back to Phil? Did she talk with you and tell you about that?" Ric pointed out.

"What's to say, Ric?" Jeff said dejectedly. "I saw them kissing passionately like they were happy to be back together again."

Both Shawn and Ric visibly winced at that.

"Did you confront her about it when you saw her with him like that?" Shawn asked.

"How could I?" Jeff protested. "I was so shocked to see them like that that I just went back upstairs in the elevator."

Ric winced again, before inquiring, "Have you talked to her since?"

"No…"

"Then what are you waiting for?" Ric looked at him incredulously.

"Okay, I'll talk to her after the match I'm in..." Jeff relented. "Though I don't know what good it will do..."

"It couldn't hurt," Shawn offered.

"Well, what kind of kiss are we talking about here?" Ric queried. "I mean, were they groping each other? More specifically were they groping each other's asses?"

Jeff frowned. "I don't think so, why?"

"Ah ha! There may be hope yet!" Rick clapped his hands. "Kissing with no groping, doesn't sound like a 'mad passionate I can't wait to drag you back to my room and have sex kiss.'"

Jeff grabbed on to that sliver of hope. "You think so?"

Ric nodded confidently. It made Jeff feel a tiny bit better to have some hope that all was not lost.

"The best way to find out is to talk to her," Shawn reminded them.

Jeff's face fell a little at that prospect.

Ric gave Shawn a "you killjoy" look.

"He's right," Jeff finally nodded. "I'll talk to her after the match… Might as well add one more thing to stress about on my list."

"Well, enough talking about that Jeff, you got a match to get to," Ric gave Jeff a friendly slap on the back and ushered him toward the exit of the locker room.

"Good luck," Shawn wished him well.

Jeff smiled a little. "Thanks…"

000

Maria sat quietly in the back of the ladies locker room. She kept going over all things she could say to try and explain herself to Jeff and tell him that she really loved him. Whether he would accept any of her explanations, was another matter.

The other divas noticed her introverted mood, and kept asking her if she was all right. She dismissed them, saying she was fine, and that it was just PMS that was getting her down. Only Ashley, Candice and Mickie knew the truth. She was grateful for her friends' attention to her, but she really just wanted to be left alone.

"Hey, Maria." Mickie finally came in. "I know you're distressed about Jeff, but if you don't get out here you're going to miss the match entirely."

"It's already on?" Maria looked at her friend in surprise.

"Yeah, you've been back here ever since our tag-team match," Mickie chuckled.

"Huh, I hadn't noticed how much time went by." Maria got up and followed her out to the main locker room where the other Divas were watching the RAW broadcast on the TVs there.

On the TV, John Morrison was climbing the ladder to get the briefcase. His climb was slow and labored from fatigue, after fighting off the other wrestlers. All of the other wrestlers were either lying unconscious or fighting outside the ring. Then from out of nowhere, Jeff crawled back into ring and staggered toward the ladder. He grabbed Morrison and suplexed him off the ladder. While the so-called "Shaman of Sexy" lay stunned on the canvas, Jeff continued to climb the ladder.

_Come on Jeff, you can do it!_ Maria prayed to herself.

Her heart began to race. She could hear JR screaming over the TV speakers, "Come on, Jeff! Climb your ass off!"

Even over the TV, the roar of the crowd was deafening as Jeff got to the top step and unhooked the briefcase. He had done it.

Maria could not contain her squeal of joy. She hugged both Candice and Mickie, who joined her cheering. However, their smiles faded as the cameraman zoomed in on Jeff clutching his chest, his face a complete mask of pain. He lost his grip on the ladder and fell. Once he hit the canvas he curled into a ball, still clutching his chest.

Without a second thought, Maria tore herself away from her friends and sprinted down the hallways toward the ring.

000

_Get up, Jeff…Get up…_ Jeff willed his tired body to get up from the arena floor and back into the ring. His dizzied mind kept flitting back to the image of Maria and CM Punk kissing. A wave of sorrow washed over him, fatiguing his already weary body even more. He swayed a little on the ring apron, almost letting go of the rope.

_Focus Jeff…_ Matt's voice echoed in Jeff's brain. The younger Hardy shook his head to clear it. Ahead of him he saw John Morrison scaling the ladder and instinct took over. His competitor's nature kicked his adrenal glands back on, pumping out more adrenaline. He had his second wind. He got into the ring and staggered towards the ladder. He grabbed Morrison around the waist and suplexed him off the ladder.

_She doesn't love me…_ Those deadly words repeated themselves in his head as he hit the canvas.

_Focus Jeff… _He shakily got to his feet and climbed the ladder. _Focus… Get the damn briefcase… Focus… She doesn't love me… Focus!_

He grabbed the briefcase and pulled it off the hook. He had done it. He finally had a chance at a world championship, something he had been working to get for the last year. And now he couldn't bring himself to be happy; he had attained something he had been working for, and lost something dear to him all in the same day. It was too much.

Suddenly, a terrible pain wracked his body, deep in his chest. His vision blurred and spots appeared in front of his eyes as the agony got even stronger. He lost his grip on the ladder and fell. He barely noticed hitting the canvas, the ache in his chest was so acute. He was shrouded in blackness as his mind tried to detach itself from the pain.

_What's happening…? Is it my heart…? Is __my __body finally giving out on me…? Is this the end of me…? I never got to see her again…_

Finally the pain subsided enough that he was able to feel a gentle touch on his cheek. He opened his eyes and there she was, her face close to his, tears spilling down her cheeks for him.

She reached out to gently stroke his sweat dampened hair. For a moment there was bliss before another spasm from deep within his chest wracked his body.

"Hang in there, Jeff…" she whispered as she caressed his cheek.

Just then the paramedics got to the ring. After a quick assessment of Jeff's condition, they carefully transported the younger Hardy out of the ring and loaded him onto a stretcher. All through the process, Maria held his hand and would not let go. A few minutes later, he was completely out cold, but just before the darkness took him, he heard the words she whispered in his ear…

"I love you…"

000

_Oh dear...just when it looked like they might be able to talk, Jeff is whisked off to the emergency room... What happened?_


	19. Love Me Tender

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

_"Love me tender, _

_Love me long, _

_Take me to your heart. _

_For it's there that I belong, _

_And we'll never part."_

-Elvis Presley _"Love Me Tender" _

000

Matt Hardy tapped his foot in nervous impatience. They had been sitting in the hospital waiting room for three hours with no news on Jeff's condition. The only thing keeping him from going completely stir crazy, was Ashley holding his hand and, occasionally patting his trembling body. Maria was sitting nearby, staring distantly at the floor.

CM Punk and Shawn Michaels had accompanied them to the hospital at first, but after an hour, they left in order to free up more seats for other patients and their families. CM offered to drive Maria back to the hotel, but she refused. She wanted to be there for Jeff, even if he did not want her anymore.

"Matt, honey, I know you're freaked out, but I think the circulation in my fingers has been cut off," Ashley said, trying to slip her hand out of Matt's grip.

The older Hardy blinked in surprise and let go of her hand. "I'm sorry, Ash… I'm just so worried…"

"I know you are…" she said quietly. She brought his head over to rest against her shoulder.

"Jeff's strong like you, he'll be all right," Maria tried to offer some hope.

"It's not a matter of strength," Matt said, becoming more distressed as he spoke. "You could be the strongest person in the world, but if your appendix ruptures, or your heart stops, your life is on the line. Shit, he could be in pain or dying back there." He sat up straight again and glared at Maria. "I know what it's like; I don't want him to go through that. He's been through enough already, thanks to you."

Maria withered under his gaze and got up to go stand by the window. Ashley could see the other diva's shoulders begin to shake from crying. Normally, Ashley would have slapped Matt upside the head for being such a bully, but she knew he was only being like this because he was worried about his little brother's life.

Ashley got up and went over to the grieving diva. "Maria, don't take that too hard, Matt's big brother instincts are going haywire and it's making him lash out, it's kind of his version of PMS."

Despite her tears, Maria could not keep from letting out a little snigger of amusement at Ashley's last comment. Just as quickly, the brunette diva went back to real sobs. "I know, but Matt's right, Ashley, I haven't exactly been there for Jeff...I broke his heart…"

Ashley let Maria cry on her shoulder as well.

"Oh, Ashley, he's going to hate me." Maria sobbed. "I love him so much; I didn't even know it all this time. Then tonight when I saw him fall, just thought of the prospect of losing him forever… I couldn't stand it."

"Sssh..." Ashley patted her on the back sympathetically. "I think once he gets better you should talk to him, tell him you're sorry and what a huge mistake you made and how you really feel. If he's anything like Matt, he'll give you the courtesy of listening to you... And everything'll work out for the best."

Matt watched the two girls from his seat and heard their conversation. He now felt a little bad that he had snapped at Maria before. He was about to go apologize when a doctor came out and called his name. He motioned the girls over.

"Mr. Hardy, I'm Dr. Tagasuki and I just want to let you know, your brother is all right," the doctor said in a friendly voice.

Matt let out the breath he had been holding, looking like he might collapse in relief. "So he's really all right? He's not dying or anything, he's not in pain?"

"Why don't you come back and see for yourself?" The doctor lead the three of them back to Jeff's room.

Once they were out of the waiting room, the doc described Jeff's condition. "Your bother suffered an esophageal spasm in his upper thoracic region."

Matt blinked, confused. He'd had a lot of injuries and appendicitis before, but he'd never heard of an esophageal spasm. "Something about his food tube in his chest?"

"Exactly," the doctor grinned. "Sometimes the muscle contractions of the esophagus become unsynchronized; it's kind of like a hiccup in the esophagus, except a lot more painful"

"So it's not his heart or his appendix or anything like that?" Matt asked, he wanted to be absolutely sure about his brother's health.

"No, though some spasms are so intense they can be confused for a heart attack by the person experiencing them," Dr. Takasugi explained. "Just to be sure, we did an EKG on his heart and that came out normal. We also did a CT scan for any injuries from the fall, nothing to worry about there."

"That's a relief…" Matt breathed.

"What caused the spasm?" Maria asked nervously.

"Well it varies from person to person," the doctor answered. "It can be caused by neurological disorders, too much stress, or even just consuming something that is too hot or too cold. In Jeff Hardy's case we think it was stress."

Maria swallowed hard and looked down at the floor. No doubt she was the cause of the extra stress. Her guilty face was not lost on Dr. Takasugi who offered some good news. "Don't worry, an esophageal spasm can be very painful, and frightening at time, but as long as it remains a one time thing it's not at all serious. Really a week's rest and he'll be in good shape."

Maria looked up and smiled, a little relieved.

Jeff was dosing off when the door to his room opened. He opened his eyes lazily as the doctor came in, but they snapped open wide when he spotted Matt. He sat up a little more and smiled as his older brother came to his bedside, followed by Ashley.

"How ya' doing little brother?" Matt grinned, patting Jeff on the shoulder.

"Oh, I'm all right." Jeff yawned and rubbed one of his eyes. "I'm just tired. The drugs they gave me aren't helping. "

"Drugs?"

"Yeah, to relax the spasms earlier." Jeff yawned again. "That's why they want to keep me around here for another hour or so. Then I can go home."

"That's good to hear." Ashley smiled.

Jeff, was starting to get sleepy again, until he saw Maria hovering in the doorway and he immediately perked up again. She smiled shyly, but didn't enter as she was afraid he was angry with her and would demand that she leave. However, her fears were quickly laid to rest when the opposite happened.

"Maria…" A broad smile spread across his face. "What are you doing all the way over there? C'mere." He beckoned her over.

"Hi, Jeff…" She made her way over to the bed nervously.

He reached out and took her hand, pulling her closer too him, still smiling. "You came…" he said in almost a whisper.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay…" she said softly. Her eyes began to water with tears of joy that he wasn't angry with her.

Meanwhile, Ashley was pulling a reluctant Matt out of the room, so the two lovebirds could be alone.

Jeff looked down and away from Maria. His smile faded, but he still held on to her hand, his thumb gently caressing her knuckles.

"I thought you'd be with Phil…" he said delicately. His words took on a double meaning, both that she had stayed at the hospital and their relationship in general.

Maria looked a little taken aback by the statement, but understood; he had a right to say that. "No, he offered to drive me home, but I refused so I could stay with you," she answered with the same double meaning.

Jeff swallowed hard, frowning a little. He still didn't look up at her. "I saw... you with Punk...and I thought you got back with him…"

"It's not…" Maria bowed her head again. "It was a kiss good-bye…"

He finally turned his head to look at her. He was doubtful, like anyone would be in this situation, and yet, at the same time he clung to that sliver of hope.

Maria looked him straight in the eye. "Yes…" The Diva took in a deep breath. "I love you, Jeff..." She finally let it out, tears and all. "I was so scared! I thought I would be too late to tell you I love you… I know you won't believe me, why should you? But I…" She was interrupted when Jeff pulled her to him and kissed her fully on the lips. Maria was caught off guard, but only for a moment, before melting into his arms. It was deep and passionate as if they had been separated from each other for years.

"I love you, I love you," she kept repeating as she touched her forehead to his.

"When did you realize that?" He grinned tiredly.

Maria wrapped her arms around him as if she were afraid to let go of him. "I thought about going through life and never again feeling the way feel when I'm with you and that scared me so much…"

Jeff hugged her back. "I know, I felt the same way when you walked away and even more so when I saw you kissing Phil."

"I'm so sorry, Jeff." She cried into his shoulder. "I know I hurt you, but never meant to hurt you, I never wanted to hurt you."

"I know… I know…" he murmured into the top of her head.

After a few moments, when Maria's tears had calmed down, she pulled away from his shoulder so she could look him in the eye. "I love all the little things about you," she said softly, wiping her tears away and, smiling. "Like when you sing in the shower, the hair colors, they way we say whatever comes into our heads, the way you smile... everything."

Jeff grinned broadly again. "You, the way you smile, your sweet personality, your voice, the way you do my nails, rub my back when it hurts, and just waking up and, seeing you next to me every morning, has been a blessing." And he meant every word. In all honesty, he was ready to ask her to marry him for real right then and there. But he did not want to put her on the spot. It was hard to say "no" to a guy lying in a hospital bed, and he wanted her to say "yes" when she really meant it. So he decided to wait until he was fully recovered, before popping the infamous question.

000

_Will Jeff propose to Maria? And if so, what will her answer be...?  
_


	20. The Wonder of You

_Disclaimer: All WWE content is owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and any use here is purely for entertainment value only. No copyright infringement is intended._

"_When no-one else can understand me_

_When everything I do is wrong_

_You give me hope and consolation_

_You give me strength to carry on_

_And you're always there to lend a hand_

_In everything I do_

_That's the wonder_

_The wonder of you_

_And when you smile the world is brighter_

_You touch my hand and I'm a king_

_Your kiss to me is worth a fortune_

_Your love for me is everything_

_I'll guess I'll never know the reason why_

_You love me like you do_

_That's the wonder_

_The wonder of you."_

-Elvis Presley_ "The Wonder of You"_

000

Two weeks after Jeff Hardy's frightening fall from the ladder after just attaining victory, found John Morrison in the ring, claiming that since the rainbow haired warrior hadn't shown his face in two weeks, he must be dead or out of the running for the number one contendership. The Shaman of Sexy also claimed that since he was the man closest to the briefcase after Jeff, he should inherit the contendership prize.

Just then, Jeff Hardy's music hit and the crowd was on their feet, giving the young Hardy a hero's welcome. They had not heard a thing since his dramatic fall, which was exactly what Vince McMahon had wanted; to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats, wondering if he was coming back or not.

The fans already knew Jeff's fall during the match was legitimate. Their big clue was after he had fallen, The Undertaker, who was sitting at ringside with the other champions, watching the match, broke his deadman character and got into the ring to see if Jeff was all right. For Mark Calaway to do that, it must have been serious.

And now their hero had returned.

Jeff slid into the ring and got into John Morrison's face, saying that the Shaman of Sexy just talked way too much, in fact he was all talk. The two men shoved each other and looked ready to lock up and do battle.

Before a fight could break out, the RAW General Manager William Regal came out. "Jeff Hardy, are you quite sure you are healthy enough to compete at Wrestlmania, against one of the champions?"

Jeff nodded.

"Then you shall prove it tonight against John Morrison," Regal announced. "If you lose the match, you will lose your number one contender status and you will be out of Wrestlemania."

Jeff mouth fell open in shock as the crowd booed. In fact, the only one who seemed happy with the situation was Morrison.

Suddenly John Cena's theme hit and the WWE champion came out to the cheer of the crowd. Regal, on the other hand, gave the champion a glare of disdain and demanded why the champ was out here in the first place.

"I want to see my possible contenders in action," Cena answered simply, before heading down the ramp to sit at ringside.

With a roll of his eyes, Regal signaled for the bell to be rung and the match to start. Jeff and Johnny locked up.

000

Maria was stretching, to get some of the soreness out of her body before her match tonight, when Candice came in.

"Hey,Maria," Candice said. "Jeff's on."

"What? I thought he wasn't supposed to fight tonight," Maria looked at her friend in surprise, before following her to watch the match on the locker room TV.

On the screen Jeff went for the whisper in the Wind but Johnny sidestepped it. Maria winced as she saw her beloved hit the unforgiving canvas. She knew he was going to be in a lot of pain after the match.

When Jeff unsteadily got to his feet, Morrison was waiting for him. As Morrison rolled Jeff up for an attempted pin, Maria watched in horror as Johnny put his feet on the ropes for leverage and the ref didn't see it. Jeff was going to be cheated out of his shot at the title.

Luckily, it seemed that John Cena would have none of that as he ran up and pushed Morrison's feet off the ropes, allowing Jeff to kick out, before the ref counted to three.

As the two circled each other, Maria could see the rage on Jeff's face at the man who tried to swindle him out of his title shot. She had the feeling Johnny was the one who was going to end up in a lot of pain after the match.

Jeff did not fail to deliver, after a few punches and a flying take down, the rainbow haired warrior performed a Twist of Fate, followed by a Swanton Bomb to Morrison. The crowd roared with cheers as Jeff got the win and secured his spot at Wrestlemania.

Maria and Candice hugged each other and squealed with excitement.

"So has he asked you to marry him again, yet?" Candice suddenly asked.

"What?" Maria said, caught off guard by the question.

"Has Jeff asked you to remarry him yet?" Candice repeated.

Maria looked down. "No."

Candice looked shocked. "Have you talked to him about it?"

"No." Maria looked up and shrugged. "He has a lot of things on his mind with Wrestlemania coming up. And well…since I kept him hanging with all of my nonsense, I figure it's only right for him to keep me waiting."

Candice looked unconvinced. "You still love him don't you?"

"With all my heart. "

000

Jeff slowly got up and limped a little over to the ropes at ringside, as the pain in his back seemed to radiate down into his leg. But he brushed it aside like he always did. Jeff grabbed a microphone and called over to Cena.

"Yo, Cena!" Jeff yelled into the mic. "At Wrestlemania you and I are going to do what I always do. We're going to steal the entire show!"

And that was it, the challenge had officially been thrown down and the crowd loved it.

Jeff gave the crowd high fives as he walked tiredly up the ramp. As soon as he left the stage he headed straight for the trainers' office to get some ice for his back. He lay down on one of the exam tables and the trainer placed an ice pack on his lower back. He looked up when the door opened again; he groaned inwardly a little when Ric and Shawn came in. Jeff sighed inwardly, he knew why they were here and it was not to congratulate him on his victory.

"Hey, buddy, you're going to Wrestlemania!" Ric greeted him and gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder.

Jeff winced a bit, even though his lower back hurt the worst, the rest of his body also ached. "Yeah that's right."

"Come on, Ric." Shawn grinned knowingly. "He knows that's not why we're here."

"What's up, guys?" Jeff rested his head on his arms.

"Well…" Flair began.

"We wanted to see how you came out with Maria," Shawn finished.

"May I ask why you two are so interested?" Jeff quirked a curious eyebrow.

Ric chuckled. "We wanted to see how our advice worked out for you."

Jeff smiled. "Real well. The whole thing with Punk was a 'good-bye' and she said she loved me, so…I'm going to ask her to marry me for real this time."

"You are?" Shawn rasped in surprise. "When?"

Jeff sighed. "That's what I'm trying to figure out. Either sooner or later…"

"If you think this will make you happy, Jeff, then I say grab it as soon as you can."

The three men turned their attention to Matt, who was standing in the doorway.

"I agree," Shawn nodded in the older Hardy's direction. "A chance at real happiness doesn't come around too often."

"On the other hand, you don't want to rush into the old ball and chain till you're both really ready," Ric pointed out.

"That's a fair point too," Jeff said wearily.

"But if you wait too long, you may lose what you have." Matt sighed sadly. "Maybe…Just maybe if I had made my move earlier, Amy might not have…" He trailed off as he swallowed a lump in his throat at the memory of his past love Amy Dumas, known to the WWE fans as Lita. While Matt was out with a knee injury, on the road Lita had an affair with Matt's friend, and WWE star Adam "Edge" Copeland. Since then, Matt had never completely opened his heart to another woman, not even Ashley.

The sad moment was broken when Maria entered the room. "What's going on?"

Matt sniffed and plastered a smile on his face. "Nothing; I was just congratulating my brother. Congratulations, Jeff." Matt patted his brother on the head, before leaving.

Shawn pulled Ric out along with him, so Jeff and Maria could have some alone time.

"Congratulations, you're going to Wrestlemania!" Maria beamed at him as she sat down on the table next to him and began to run her hands softly up and down his back.

"Thanks." Jeff closed his eyes and smiled.

"This is so exciting." Maria giggled. "My man fighting for the WWE championship at Wrestlemania."

"Yeah," Jeff chuckled. "Here's hoping I win it."

"My money's on you." She kissed the top of his head. "How's your back?"

"No worse than usual. But it's still looking forward to a real massage tonight," he grinned slyly at her.

"That's good because I've been wanting to try out some new techniques." She smiled, before frowning a little. "Though I don't know how effective I'll be, my arms might be tired after my match."

"Well, I'll give you an arm massage afterwards." He winked at her.

"I'd like that a lot," she said, before looking at her watch. "Speaking of my match, it's on in a few minutes. Mickie and I are taking on Melina and Jillian."

"Good luck, hon'," he said, getting up and, kissing her on the cheek.

"Thanks." She kissed him back and got up, but before she could walk to the door, he caught her wrist and stopped her.

Maria looked at him.

He was going to do it. He was going to follow the advice of HBK and his brother. Now was just as good a time as any. She smiled back at him and he felt his heart flutter with anticipation. He was now thirty years old, and not getting any younger, even if things didn't work out, it was worth a try right?

She looked at him expectantly and he opened his mouth to ask, but closed it again. No, now was not the time nor the place. "Don't let Melina push you around too much."

She giggled as he released her wrist. "I won't, I promise."

000

_Get up, Jeff… Get up…_ The younger Hardy willed his exhausted body to push Cena off of him just before the three count.

The two men had been giving the audience a real show, almost a forty-five minute battle, pushing each man to his limit. John Cena had clearly underestimated Jeff Hardy's endurance and refusal to stand down long enough for a three count.

However, both men were nearing the end of their tether, at this point one mistake, one second of lost focus, could lose the match for one and gain victory for the other.

Jeff staggered to his feet as quickly as he could, so he would not get in Cena's infamous submission move, the STFU. But as he turned around, he was hit with a fearsome clothesline. That was it. The tether in Jeff's body had broken; he had nothing left, not even enough energy to stand.

Cena grabbed him by his hair and hauled him to his feet, only to be lifted up onto the champ's shoulders, to be finished off by the FU finisher.

In the dark seconds before his eventual demise, an image of Maria wishing him good luck before the match, flashed through his head. No. He couldn't give up. If he could not keep going for himself, he could do it for her; he wanted her to marry a winner, a champion. His body seemed to be fueled by this desire and it seemed to come back to life again.

He struggled his way out of the FU, catching Cena by surprise. Rarely had anyone struggled out of his strong grip, much less a foe at the end of the fight. The Champ had little time to ponder this when he suddenly felt Hardy's arm around his neck, and his face driven into the floor, by the Hardy's patented Twist of Fate.

Jeff got up and headed for the turn buckle to perform his own finisher. It was the only way to be certain that Cena would stay down. This was his last reserve of strength, it was all or nothing. He climbed the turnbuckle. His legs were shaky, but they held their ground as he stood up on the turnbuckle. He raised the Hardy Suicide Guns as the crowd roared, willing him to make the Swanton. They wanted a new champ too.

He jumped.

Direct hit. He scrambled to cover Cena, hoping and, praying that it was enough.

_One… two… three…_

Jeff sat there, trying to catch his breath, as his adrenaline started to drain away. He blinked when a glint of gold was held in front of his face.

Then hit him like a bolt of lightening.

Jeff felt his heart stop for a second as he took the championship belt from the referee's hand and stared at it. He had done it. Finally after all of these years of putting his body on the line, he had done it. He was now a world champion and now truly worthy of his beloved's hand.

He gave himself a hard pinch on the cheek to make sure that this was really happening and not a hallucination from one too many blows to the head.

It was real.

Suddenly, he just burst out crying, hugging the championship belt to his chest. It was not because he was sad by any means. He was just so full of emotion in that one sweet moment, that it simply broke his dam of inhibition. All of the struggle, the pain, the injuries, they had finally paid off.

He was champion.

After a few tears had been shed, he opened his eyes and saw little bits of colored paper all around him. He looked up to see confetti floating through the air. A Wrestlemania tradition to congratulate the winner of the championship match.

Chants of "Hardy! Hardy! Hardy!" rang through the arena, one great voice made from many. He slowly got to his feet. Despite his tired body's pleas for rest, he unsteadily walked to the nearest turnbuckle and stood up on the bottom rope, holding up his championship for all of his supporters to see.

Even though the cheers of the crowd were deafening, one voice seemed to pierce through the cacophony, calling his name. He turned to see Maria in the middle of the ring, looking up at him with tears in her eyes, yet a bright smile on her face. He smiled back and jumped down from the turnbuckle. Without another word she ran up and hugged him. Still holding on to the title in one hand, he hugged her back.

"I'm so proud of you," she said into his ear so he could hear over the crowd noise. "You were amazing out there."

"I was thinking of you," he said. "And that kept me going at the end when I had nothing left in me. It was like you gave me something extra."

She pulled away just a little to look him in the eye, clearly touched by that. "I'm glad I could help in anyway I could."

Dropping the Championship belt from his grasp completely, he brought his hands up to cup both sides of her face and kissed her. He didn't care if the arena full people and millions of TV viewers were watching. Right in that moment it was just the two of them and no one else.

"Marry me," he said as he pulled away from the kiss.

Maria blinked. "What?"

"Will you marry me?" He asked, and holding his breath, he waited for her answer.

She stared at him in shock for a moment and smiled, although she looked like she might cry again. "Yes, Jeffery Nero Hardy, I will marry you."

He let out the breath he had been holding and looked both relieved and elated. In his jubilation he attempted to pick her up like they did in the romantic movies, but his lower back finally screamed "No more!" and he a was forced to put her down.

Suddenly Matt Hardy slid into the ring and pulled his little brother into a bear hug, much to the agony of Jeff's back. "My little baby brother is a world Champion! Hardy! Hardy! Hardy!"

"Yeah," Jeff grunted. "A champion with a very sore back."

At that, Matt immediately let Jeff go. While the younger Hardy absorbed the pain in his back, Maria picked up his championship belt and Matt slipped under his arm to help him walk out.

"It's okay, I'll be fine," Jeff insisted.

"You sure?" Matt asked worriedly.

"Yeah, it's my big moment." He nodded. "I want to walk out of here on my own power, like a champion."

Maria grinned. "Then you'd better look like a champion." She put the belt over Jeff's shoulder and pulled pieces of confetti out of his hair, before helping him out of the ring with Matt. The Hardys high-fived the audience members on the way up the ramp, all three of them joining the chants of "Hardy! Hardy! Hardy!"

At the top of the ramp Jeff held up the belt one more time, before exiting backstage for some much needed rest. Unfortunately, that much needed rest was delayed as he was greeted with cheers and congratulations by his fellow wrestlers. Jeff did his best to hide the fact that every friendly slap on the back sent shockwaves of excruciating pain up and down his spine. He was just glad that Maria was next to him, holding his hand.

Finally Cena came up to him and shook his hand, saying, "We definitely stole the show. And don't get used too attached to that title."

Jeff laughed. "Man after all of the effort getting it, it's going to stay glued to my waist."

The younger Hardy and his crew bid the former champion good-bye before continuing on.Finally, Jeff and Maria and Matt made it back to the privacy of Jeff's locker room.

By this time, the pain his back had snuffed out his cloud of absolute euphoria and allowed his brain to realize the horrible position he had put Maria in when he asked her to marry him out there. It wasn't right to put her on the spot like that, in front of all of those people.

"Um, Matt," Jeff asked guiltily, feeling bad that he was kicking his big brother out for a little while. "I know it's the big night and all, but could you give me and Maria a few minutes alone? I have some important things to say."

At first Matt gave his little a brother a look, saying, "What the hell could be so important?" but quickly realized just how important it was.

"All right, I'll be outside, with champagne," Matt winked at them, before exiting the room.

Jeff chuckled a little at his brother and Maria giggled as well. But he grew serious as he turned his attention back to her.

"Maria," he said softly, taking a seat next to her. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to put you on the spot out there."

"You mean you didn't mean what you said?" She looked at him fearfully.

"No, I meant what I said, I just don't want you to feel like you had to say 'yes' because we were out there," Jeff said, looking down sadly. "You can take your answer back if you want."

Maria tilted his face up to meet hers. "I don't want to take anything back; I meant what I said too," she said, smiling.

He stared at her in disbelief; this evening was going too perfectly. "Really? You mean it? You really want to?"

She giggled, tears of happiness running down her cheeks. "That's what I said, silly."

Jeff was so filled with joy he could not believe he could be this happy. He wanted reassurance before he let his heart be open to trust again. "You're sure now, you absolutely want to--"

He was cut off when she passionately kissed him on the lips. That was all the reassurance he needed. He had his girl's love and his championship. Finally all was right with the world.

THE END

000

_Finally Jeff and Maria found each other...again... _

_Thank you all for reading and reviewing this story. I had a lot of fun writing this little romance for such a wonderful audience like you. You guys were so great, I'm thinking I might write a sequel as soon as I think of a plot for it and tie up some loose ends with my other fics._

_Thanks again! hugs_


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